Scar Close NNR
Dales National Park
SSSI
Ingleborough
Site Details
Recorders: Andrew Hinde + Terry Whitaker Length 2389m Walk Time: 45mins
Within the Ingleborough National Nature Reserve, the transect goes across Scar Close, at the north west slopes of Inglebrough. An area of sparsely wooded limestone pavement supporting a wide diversity of calcareous grassland species. The site is unique in having areas of peat on the pavement that support more acidic tolerant species. The transect was established primarily for Northern Brown Argus but in recent years has had a large colony of Dark-green Fritillary. The discovery of Small Pearl- bordered Fritillary in 2007 highlights the importance of the transect monitoring approach for some of the key butterfly species in the upland
Sections
S1 is dominated by Green-viened White
S2 is the favourite for Dark-green Fritillary but is also seen throughout
S3 is favourite with Peacock and Northern Brown Argus is seen
S5 is favourite of Small Pearls along with S8 but also seen throughout
S9 is also a favourite for the Vannesids
S10 owards most species present at lower levels
Results 2021 2022 Insufficient data
Although the data has too many gaps to have alot of certainity we can see the skippers have gone absent this year along with Orange tips. Peacocks are very much lower. Overal counts compared to the peak in 2019 are about half largely as a result of this and of course the Painted Ladies that year. You can also guess that Dark Green fritillary and the Small Pearls are also holding well.. if not increasing.
Longer term we can see a very strong improvement in the SPBF and a equally strong decrease in the Dark green Fritillary. Northern brown Argus is showing a slow decline along with an even steeper decline in Common Blue . Overall numbers of al species is upwards in common with all our monitored sites. The repacements for teh Lycaenids are all grassland species starting with a sharp improvement in Small heath from 2015 meadow brown and Ringlet began to appear in increasing numbers each year along with Green Hairstreak. Almost all species suffered catastrphic losses in summer 2017
