Bolton Percy

Station YWT

Tadcaster

Site Details:

Recorders: Sarah Mawby + Sam Watson Distance: 480m Walk Time approx 40mins

This tiny site is consists of the old station platform and surrounding track bed of ballast and chalk are are favourites with Common Blue and other grassland species species including Small Heath. The platform has overgrown with shrub along with surrounding overgrown Hedgerows and the open mosaic of yard area has been badly damaged by railway operations . Wall Brown used to be common and Dingy Skipper was seen but not in recent years.

Sections:

The Vanessids very much favour the sunny hedgerow with tall herbs of S1 bordering the field while Speckled Woods prefer the shady trackside woodland of S4+5. S4 is also a favourite for Gatekeepers, Holy Blue Meadow Browns and Orange tips. Common Blue prefers the open area of old track-bed S1. The old platform previously the centre of butterfly action is now overgrown. The site is beginning to scrub up and the beds of Birds foot trefoil are much reduced.

Results 2022

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.

Transect reports 2020

Results 2021

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

Results: 2020

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