Countywide, after a warm winter  April turned  cold, very wet and dull and everything just about stopped and it was near impossible to transect walk all month. By May  there were already  losses  among our spring species being  down a third in numbers.  June brought Arctic winds, a complete reversal of  the Hot June of 2023 when nine  species reached all time highs here and across the UK.  For the  first two weeks of this June  temperatures  were 8’C cooler than  in 2023 around  a frigid  9’C  with  only 5 good days of sun at the end of the month.  The  first three weeks of July had  the same theme of  cool and damp with 5 warm sunny days at the end. Transect walking for many  was very difficult.  The  persistence of the cold and damp over such a long period had a devastating effect with numerically two thirds of our butterflies in the critical later stages of their development; mortality was very high. It was  also one of the longest June  ‘Lulls’  lasting from late May to the beginning of July. When the main flight  season did arrive it  was  slow to build up  and there was no usual peak. Better weather in August helped  save the second generation and very unusually numbers actually went up at the start of September.

  Losers

        For many species it was a triple whammy after  the heat and droughts of the previous 2 years and  last July’s poor flight period this year made it a perfect storm. Overall, annual numbers were down 41% against the average and 45% down on last year.  Half our species were down more than 50% and a quarter down more  than 70%. The Lycaenids, Vannesids and the Fritillaries were amongst the worst affected. Many transect walkers did not see  a single Common Blue, Small Copper, Holly Blue, or Brown Argus until late into their 2nd broods..  Four of our long term declining species Common Blue, Small Heath, Small Skipper and Green-veined White  had  their worst year ever recorded. 

The Winners and less bad losers 

      Northern Brown Argus  had an exceptional year up near 50%  Other species bucking  the trend were Brimstone and Marbled White. The  damp  loving Ringlet on many limestone/dry sites  were up a half  while on most wet sites they fell by a half.  However if it wasn’t for Ringlet holding up the overall numerical losses, this year would have been significantly worse. It often happens when Meadow Brown has a very poor year, like this one, Ringlet does proportionally better, and vice versa in a warm year. 

It has all happened before… many times.    

It was our worst year since 2016 but nearly as bad as 2009  when numbers  were  down 50%.  2024 comes after a run of 6 relatively good years since 2018  along with  rapidly rising temperatures including 2 of our hottest summers which were followed by two of our best butterfly years in 2019 and 2023. It is  likely 2024 was a blip

Bolton Percy showed similar trends to teh county but with some exceptionally good  results for Holy Blue and Comma and bucking the trend Smal lheath on the lowland location had a good year,  Losers were as teh county trends. Overall numbers were above the county trend at 16%  due to very good numbers of Small White.

The site  had a very much better year  and shows many similarities with other sites. Large White was down while Small white  was  well up compared to last year. Green viened white bucked the county trend and was a  tad down here.   Orange Tip  as elsewhere was up.  Its great to see the Common Blue come back and Holy Blue boomed universally. As with elsewhere Red Admiral was up  and the Small Torst and Peacock had a disasterous second brood and were universally down as here.  In common  with elsewhere, and in contrast to the other vanessids,  Comma boomed.  Speckled wood was up as in the majority of the county.  Following the county pattern the Browns did well apart from Small Heath that  dropped back on its bumper year last year. 

Overall numbers were down rather more than the average for Yorkshire but similar to nearby transects . It did buck the trend with one of the few places where Comma and Holy Blue, Speckled Wood and Ringlet  increased  which might be related to the increasing scrub. In line with the Yorkshire trends  gatekeeper  had a good year universally

Although overall number stayed about the same there were more losers than winners. Losers were in particular Common Blue and Holy Blue but also Peacock ,Small Heath and Speckled woods  were down. In contrast Gatekeepers were way up and the boom in Small Tortoiseshells was seen here as well along with gains in the Whites