Canklow
Site Details:
Walker : Steve Branch Distance : 947m Altitude 68m Walk time 25 mins
This urban green space lies below Boston Castle and Urban Rotherham and the river Rother. It is bordered to the east and south by Canklow woods which is dominated by Oak and Birch is used by many dog walkers and for exercise, To teh west it is bordered by back gardens,
It is largely unmanaged and the somewhat dry, acidic unimproved grassalnd with a good variety of species
Sections:
S1 to S3 at the bottom of this shallow bank bordering houses and their gardens and tends to have the highest counts particularly of Gatekeeper, Large Skipper and Ringlets Flowering plants attract the Vanessids, S4 sees more birds foot trefoil and subsequently Common Blue and Small and Easses Skipper. S5 loops into scrubby woodland and Speckled woods appear alongside Ringlet in the shade. S6 and S& skirt the northern perimeter of scrubb and small trees and Meadow browns begin to be seen in more numbers. S8 and S9 follow down teh slope along teh southern boundary and and teh small skippers along with meadow browns and gatekeepr predominate,
Results 2023:
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%.
Canklow in many ways reflect the county trends for this a sandy site but the main influence on numbers were the loss of the skippers particularly Large but also Ringlet and small heath all of whom are damp lovers. All the vanessid species did better agaianst county trend as did all the whites except GV white and Oraneg tip that prefer damp. The real winners were Meadowm Brown and Gatekeeper which was universal across teh county. Losses equalled gains.
