Rabbit Ings Country Park

Owned by  The Land Trust

Managed by Groundworks trust

Site details:

Recorders: restart in 2024                       Distance:  1776m                              Walk Time: 1hour

Rabbit Ings is a country park located on the former colliery yard and spoil heap of the Monkton Colliery and then the Royston Drift Mine, which closed in 1989. A striking image of a rabbit is carved on the hillside which can be seen from miles around. The rabbit, similar to the black rabbit on Watership Down, is a Norse image which ties in with the name of the site – ‘ings’ being a Norse word or description of low lying wetland.  The 64-hectare site, situated near Royston in South Yorkshire, is home to an array of wildlife  

Sections

S1 starts near the car park and track  junction before the beck and   proceeds along the  mown main track SW  S2  takes a track over grass south in a gulley and brings Orange Tip before joining  a track.

S3 track and rough grassland  favours Small Heath and Small Copper. S4 follows the edge of the mown grass  and rejoins the main track and has little to offer except Common Blue.

S5 heads uphill  joining the zigzag track. S6 is a zig zag and sees more Small Heath Meadow Brown, Common Blue and Gatekeeper and has the highest count

S7 is another zig zag  joining the top road. S8 goes SW  but branchs north on a path and has moderate numbers of Small Heath

S9 goes through a small copse and scrub and has little. S10 proceeds along the path before joining the top level circular track with similar numbers of Smal Heath and Meadow Brown but also Gatekeeper.

S11+ S12  follows the  circular track west. S13 leaves the top circle heading east down the bank and has little. 

S14 follows the bottom  road heading north  and is wooded and has Dingy Skipper.  S15 leaves the main track heading up the slope between the two woodlands  back to a radial track from the top circle and has a mix of species  with Orange Tip but also Dingy Skipker.

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

TRANSECT REPORTS