Southerscales YWT

Ingleborough

Site Description

Recorders:  Roger Neale                  Distance: 2210m       Walk Time Approx : 30 mins

This stunning nature reserve is perched on the   west side of Ingleborough. It is particularly important for its large areas of spectacular limestone pavement. The cracks, or grykes as they are known, hide a wide variety of special lime-loving plants. The limestone grassland surrounding it is full of butterflies in the spring and summer. 

Sections:

S1 starts at Southerscale farm heading up teh slope through grassy meadow area .

S2 reachs the base  of teh pavement  and teh highest counts and the favourite area to see  Common Blue Dark -green Fritillary and Small Heath .

S3 is also good for the fritillaries 

S4 has similar but much lower numbers of meadow brown. 

S6 sees an increase in numbers particularly Fritillaries  that continues to S8

Results: 2024  No Data

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

Results: 2023  Insufficient data

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%.

Results: 2022 

A dramatic year  with the arrival of Orange Tip, Small Skipper along with teh return of green hairstreaks along with a boom in many species lifted counts 75%!

 In general the site is showing a strong increase after some very poor years in  2016-17  means 2022 could be a record breaker

Green viened white had its best year so far and Common Blue continued to improve on last year to its best year so far. Migrant vanessids were good but after teh huge boom in tortoiseshell the last two years numbers dropped by two thirds. Dark-green fritillary although well down on its  on its peak last year is holding up well. The Browns boomed with Meadow Brown  the biggest wiinner of all  accounting for two thirds of all the improvements  jumped near three fold. Small Heath was slightly down on last year  but still very much on the increase  

Results: 2021

Counts generally improved. Most noticeable were increased Common Blue, Small Heath  and Meadow Brown which nearly doubled. 

Other species were fairly stable  and Dark-green Fritillary may have slightly increased.