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 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.