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

 As well as being a dry site of calcareous grasslands it is also a woodland site so overall numbers are dead on the county average of 9% up.  The trends are pretty close to the county with teh big winners  Brimstone, Holly blue Speckled wood and Gatekeeper.  The big looser was Ringlet as everywhere else but more so here.  Dark Green fritillary loses are similar to most locations being extremely high  and teh species has been lost from its new gains along teh limestone ridge, hopefully it wil bounce back just as quickly . Tortoiseshell still tumbling and showing no signs of stoping one of its worse declines in modern times while Peaock is at last turned teh corner and starting to improve again. Comma increases  of 90% seem now to be teh norm  as do strong increases in Speckled wood and one is left wondering how much of this is down to loss of Small Tortoiseshell and all its parasites are benefiting both these species.  Marbled white had yet anothe good year. As at other woodland site white letter hairstreaks were much more visible as teh descend from their normal tree habitat after the rains washed away the honeydew and could be found nectaring on flowers. Small skipper is very disappointing as many unmanged sites had quite a boom of this species.  Many local sites alos saw teh big influx of migrant small white this summer as here.  brown Argus on lowland sites liek this showed a very strong increase. 

A better year in 2022 . Small Skipper continues its slow decline as in many sites and is worrying. Large skpper was up on last year in most places by 30% and Brockadale is spot on. Brimstone was also up by a similar amout to teh rest of teh county.  green viened white and Orange tip  were about teh same which again is similar to the county with just smal changes but Large white in teh county was down 11% and -2 here so fairly similar.  It great to see Whiet letter hairstreak spotted on transect which is rare descending only in dire heat or lack of honeydew.  In Yorkshire Smal Copper was up a tad on last year but wel down longer term so great to see a good few here although their occurance tends to be sporadic.  Brown Argus on rockrose suffered very badly as here but boomed out on mineral soils on cranesbill  Common Blue suffered as well more so than other sites possibly due to drought on Brockadale's chalk -5% across the county. Holy Blue was the same as last year which is quite different from other sites where it really boomed on teh spring generation.  The vanessids  overwintered really well  but were the real casualities in the heat and drought. Small Torts across the county were down -56%  as here . Peacock   did not suffer as badly here as elsewhere but Comma  universally boomed doubling in numbers on the summer generation. Dark green=Frits wer a bit down as again was pretyy universal and Silver washed were well up with a boom in teh county and much dispersal yet again.  Marbled white boomed but died off very quickly which masked a significant dispersal of thsi species popping up all over grasslands throughout much of the lowland grasslands The other browns also benefited somewhat but Gatekeaper really boomed.  Together the browns pushed the year total above last year despite the huge losses in the vanessids which is reflected in many localities