Hipperley Beck
Site Details
Recorder: Ian Popely Route distance: 6193m Altitude : 122m Walk time: 2hrs
This circular route on the west and east side of the beck is mostly conifer plantations with some clear felled areas with early stage coppice that may make it suitable for Fritillaries.
Mnay of the Forestry rides are wide and the chalk roads encourage more flowering plants and a greater variety. Dark-green, Silver washed and a very good population of Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary are present
Sections
S1 woodland is the home of many speckled woods.
S2 decidous forest with coppice was highly productive For Fritillaries with 70 SPBF , SWF and DGF and its flower rich grassalnds held many Ringlet and even small skipper and Common Blues and a few meado wbrowns .
S3 also had good numbers of SPBF and other species.
S4 less again with some grassland species,
S5 see very low numbers of speckled wood or other shade lovers but surprisingly quite a few Peacock which seems to abound in teh upper half of the valley
S6 Even more Peacocks and some Small pearls Common Blue and Comma's and Dingy Skipper on the chalk road junctions with Birds foot trefoil and more flowers for the vanessids
S7 peacock reach very high levels and teh second busiest section with wide grassy ride sides and more meadow browns but particularly Ringlets and teh Wall was seen
S8 back into more shaded forest with many grassalnd species but still plenty of Peacocks
S9 more open and grassy than S8 and Comma appear in more numbers
S10 again shaded but grassy forest rise
Results 2024:
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
Hipperley Beck results are somewhat worse than teh county average down 54%. The main reason is the Vanessids suffered worst losses down 450. The speckled wood by proportions was down somewhat less while most the other species were down near 60% .The large Fritillaries did slightly less bad here as did the Whites and Brimstone.
Results 2023:
County wide 2023 results reflect the 2022 Heat and 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 moisiture 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%.
Overall numbers at Hipperley were up 8% about the same as the county average. Some of trends here were common to the county as well. The biggest winner numerically was Speckled wood that boomed everywhere to an all time record Meadow Brown also did well and seemingly bomb proof in the drought while moisture sensitive species like Ringlet suffered along with Dark-green Frillary and Wall . Great to see a big increase of Small Pearls. In line with the county, Silver-washed Fritillary, Comma and of course Red Admiral were well up .
Results 2022:
Very interesting list of species on this new monitored site with both Dingy Skipper and Wall seen. Certainly both these species had a better year across the county.