Pexton
Bank FC
Thornton le Dale
Site Details
Recorders Ian Popely, Graham Oliver and Paul Cogan Altitude 125m Distance 900m Walk time= 40mins
At the entrance to the Dalby Forest scenic drive just outside Thornton le Dale this site is a dry unimproved limestone grassland on the tabular hills. The path follows an ancient earthwork and ditch from Ellerburn Bank to the Dalby Forest drive Car Park along the top ridge of the eastern side of Thornton Dale. It was largely native mature mixed woodland replanted with pine planataions and now being restored , it slopes steeply to the east . The route follows various scallops cut into the forest and the ditch in places. Duke of Burgundy has been seen in the ditch and the Marsh thistles and Bugle are favourites with our other Fritillary species.
Sections
S1 is a small meadow to the east of the foot path sharing many species with adjoining Ellerburn Bank but contains a good many violets and a strong Colony of Dark green Fritillary and Dingy Skipper plus an occasional Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary. It is also the favourite of the Wall and Brown Argus and Common Blue and plenty of Marbled Whites can be seen.
S2 is the footpath with lesser number of woodland edge species like Speckled Wood and Green -viened White
S3 another loop from teh main path sees Small Heath and is the home to more Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries.
S4 counts are very low
S5 has tall grass loving species like Large Skipper and high counts of Ringlets
S6 favours the damp loving of Orange Tip and Speckled Wood
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 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
Pexton Bank was much like the county average and losses are pretty uniform across the species apart from Ringlet bounced back a bit increasing over 2023 and the drought years
2023 Results
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%.
Pexton Bank sees a significant decrease in numbers this year and worryingly a complete absence of Dark Green Fritillary after its collapse last year in the heat. The Small Pearls also seem to have suffered badly too on the steep sloping chalkland part wooded bank. As a results almost all species lost out apart from Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood, Comma Red Admiral and Brimstone all of whom boomed across the county.
2022 Results
An above average year but this site in contrast to most is steady or showing a slow decline in numbers with the last peak in the universally good year of 2019.
Small Skipper is on a long term decline here as are Large skipper. Dingy Skipper levels held up well but were down elsewhere. All the Whites did well apart from Large. Small Copper after returning for a few years disappeared. A duke of burgundy was seen which is a first for many years and generally the dukes had a better year with some dispersal. Brown Argus and the other blues were down in the drought as they were at next door Ellerburn Bank. All the Vanessids had a very poor year with many not being seen after the end of June with enforced hibernation in the heat. Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary had a much better year trebling on last year but still this species appears to be on the decline. Dark green had a very poor year down to a tenth of the average although it was down on most sites. Wall is showing signs of a slow recovery after reappearing in number in 2018 it was however rather down thsi year. Speckled wood remained average whiel marbled white was somewhat down. The browns accounted for most of thsi years gains for teh site compensating for all the losses.
2021 Results
2021 was a much better year than 2020 but not exceptional like 2019.
Brimstone and Orange Tip saw increases as in many Yorkshire transects. Dingy Skipper saw an increase to a new high. Large Skipper returned in better numbers and there is obvious signs of recovery after the spring 2020 severe drought in many species . Brown Argus, Common Blue and Small Copper had some of their best counts . Comma and Red Admiral did particularly poorly as they did almost everywhere while Dark-green Fritillary had its best year. Speckled Wood is stil recovering while Marbled White boomed as it did elsewhere and Wall did well
2020 Results
A poor year compared to recently particularly amongst our grassland species with Wall brown not appearing, Skippers apear to be in a steady decline. teh migrant Vannesids were wel down as they were on many sites along with large whites but unusually Peacocks had a poor year as well. Fritillaries werea littel down while Dingy skipper looks fairly steady. Duke of Burgundy was not seen. See comaprisons below:
The following adjustments were applied to compensate for missing beginning of the season: Dingy +5, Large White +1, GVW +7, Brown Argus +1, Red Admiral+2, Small Pearl +2, DGF +5, Peacock +5, Small Tort +1