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

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

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.  

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