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