Potteric

 Carr 

YWT

Site Details

Recorder:  Olivia Kelly,  Ann Davis  and Paul Davis                 Distance :  2682m   Walk Time 1hr

Potteric Carr is  a remnant of the vast fenland that once stretched all the way across the Humber basin to the coast  now refered to as the HumberheadA mosaic of habitats, from reedbeds to winding woodland trails and networks of ponds. During summer, the meadows are full of butterflies.  


Sections:

S1-S11 are mostly wet woodland dominated  by Birch, Alder,  Oak and Sallows and counts are low and fairly typical shady grassland.  

S5 stood out with the highest counts and the home of Orange tips  

S12-S14 around the visitor centre are open and S12 bank is particulalry blessed with  wildflowers and sees Common Blue,  Comma, Peacock and Orange Tip do appear. 

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%.

Potteric like other wooded sites on the Humberhead had a really good year.  The site closely follws the county trends  but here the only significant numerical loser being Ringlet. Much of the gains, as elsewhere, were with Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown both of which doubled ! Speckled Wood, Brimstone and Comma also doubled all these specie sbuilt on a good year last year.   Dark-green Fritillary  was seen for the first time this year. Not a single Small Tortoiseshell was seen and  this is not  that uncommon in the south of the county

Transect reports 2020

Results 2022

2022 sees this shady grassland/wooded wetland significantly increase  in numbers  by 20% and on many species  compared to 2021.  Most significant and folowing the county trends Brimstone is up and the damp loving Green viened White somewhat down. Also amongst the vanessids the site follows county trends with Red Admiral up and a disaster with Peacock and the second generatiom Small Tortoiseshell.  Comma in line with almost all sites bounced back with a cracking first generation of hutchinsoni  and 3 times the number of last year.  It nice to see Silver-washed Fritillary in this a dispersal year for this species..  but will it stay? There is most certainly a colony close by likely the limestone ridge but if there are violets it wil stay. All the Browns had a good year in line with most locations enjoying the warm June speeding their development particularly Gatekeeper boomed.  

Results 2021

Surveys were not undertaken in 2020 due to lack of  resources during the pandemic.  In 2021 the route was expanded to cover existing woodland trails   but  still covering  much of the older route represented by S11-14 in the new route which are much more open grasslands   

The biggest changes  mostly because of teh route change to woodland are  large of Speckled Woods, Ringlets and Gatekeeper . Thelater appeared absent previously. It good to see Common Blue numbers up in the older transect and tortoiseshel numbers well up