Butterfly Conservation Yorkshire

Burton

Leonard

Quarry YWT

Site Details

Recorders: Kerry Morrison & Ruth Rymer Distance: 674m Walk Time: 35mins

A disused Magnesian Limestone quarry that supports a mix of limestone grassland, scrub and broadleaved woodland with a rich calcareous flora on a very small site. There is a typically rich selection of wildflowers in the Magnesian Limestone grassland, including the locally rare Burnet Rose and Autumn Gentian. The scarce spring sedge can be found in the grassland areas. The scree slopes have a different range of species that include Squinancywort, Wild Basil and Clustered Bellflower. Wych Elm suckers from old Coppice stumps abound particularly in the bowls of the old quarry works and may have been grown to fuel the kilns. Dutch Elm Disease kills many but there area few larger flowering trees and White-letter hairstreak are seen often.

Sections:

The transect starts from the gate S1 and uphill into a steep sloping meadow with Burnett Rose in abundance an S2 and 3 down into the woodland that then opens to the entrance of the quarry working and the base of the quarry face and S5. S6+ 7 are back into trees and 8 and 9 are the lower meadow area. Peacocks are seen in S3-4 along with good numbers of Meadow Brown and Ringlet. Speckled Woods prefering S4+5 and 8 Small Skippers S4 along with Wall Brown. Small Copper are seen in S1 and S5 and Brown Argus in S2

2024 Results

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 not 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

Burton Leanard had a slightly poorer than average results. As on other drier sites brimstone and Orange tip did rather well. As in so many sites just a singel tortoiseshell was seen. peacock numbers were near double last year as they recover from teh drought but stil way below the average. Only teh ringlet did relative to other species some what less badly! Results were similar to the poor years of 2016-17

Transect reports 2020

2023 Results

County wide 2023 results reflect the 2022 and 2023 spring drought with Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock nearly halved for the second year against their 5 year average. Red Admiral arrived in force in July and took advantage of soft nettle growth of the rains and had their best year ever. Drought sensitive species on thin soils were badly hit, particularly Dark -green Fritillary and Northern Brown Argus but also Ringlet, Green-viened White and Small Heath. Less drought affected species along with the hottest June on record built even more on gains last year leading to Comma, Brimstone, Holly Blue and most Browns having a fantastic year reaching all time highs. A increase of 9% overall was mostly due to sheer numbers of Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers ment 2023 nearly pipped 2014 as best year in modern times. Most noticeable was the large differeces between mositure retaining mineral soils of the valleys and thin, dry limestone or sandy soils. A large number of damp grassland, hedgerow and woodland dominated sites benefitted hugely with 3 sites seeing more than 50% increase . A smaller number of thin, chalky, sandy or craggy sites did badly some down up to 25%.

Burton leeonard builds on last years better results with a very good year; up 12% while across the county it was 9%. Trends are similar to the county average but this is a very dry site with thin soils and woodland creating some shade. The county wide boom in Meadow Brown this year really boosted this years figures and although Ringlet was neagtive in so many sites here it managed a small postive . Unusually Speckled Wood was negative. Great to see the return of Common Blue to the site and all the blue family did well. Brimstone showed a huge increase which it did throughout Yorkshire.

2022 Results

After two poorer years counts have returned to near average. The trends mostly follow the county trends with a very good year for the browns and a very poor year for some of our vanessids. Orange tips numbers are rising in the short and long term and this is certainly the case here with another very good year. Small Copper was up here and has a mixed year however brown Argus had a cracking good year with three times the average here and very much inline with the county. All the vanessids apart from comma are very much down but in particular Peacock which made only a fleeting appearance this summer after good numbers surviving hibernation after a good year last year. The tortoiseshell boom ended with a bust and again it failed to have a second generation because of the heat and poor quality of Nettles. Comma is very different with a large boom in the summer generation unlike the other vanessids it alos produced a second if smaller second generation likely because it prefers to lay eggs on shaded nettles. Speckled wood boomed on teh second generation with the highest annual count of any year. Gatekeeper also boomed and ringlet and Meadow browns mostly managed improvements over their average. A better a year and almost up to 2018 standard as on most sites.

2021 Results

2021 was similar to 2020 with similar numbers of many species but an absence of the species like Holy Blue, Wall ,Skippers and Small Copper. Al the vannessids had a bad year as in teh rest of Yorkshire suffering with the very poor spring weather. However as with most of Yorkshire the quarry showed the boom in Brimstone, Orange Tips and Gatekeeper. It was good to see the return of the Brown Argus which has had a boom universally across the county in heatwave

2020 Results

2020 looks a bit of a disaster as many of its scarcer species were not seen plus the loss of the migrant Painted Lady and substantial drops in Peacock and Meadow Brown numbers which we can guess is a consequence of the spring drought conditions . In contrast Small Tortoiseshel in common with other transects was way up 3-600% being quite normal. 2019 figures are also presented as being more 'normal' for the number of species. Highlights were Wall Brown in 2018-9 and White-letter Hairstreak seen in 2018.

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