Staveley East YWT
Boroughbridge
Site Details
Recorders: Geoff Blakesley , Anna Wallin and Pam Francis Distance: 3402m Altitude 27m Walk Time Approx: 1 hour 30 mins
Two large, flooded former gravel pits (East and West), fringed with rushes, along with several small pools and drainage channels. Some extensive grassland and small areas of woodland. There is also a large variety of wildflowers, especially orchids, including a large colony of Marsh Helleborines.
Sections:
S1 is a meadow now being planted with trees and although the smallest section has a very good count of grassland species including Gatekeeper
S2 is favoured by Orange Tip
S3-4 have relatievly low counts
S5 goes through woodland where Comma and Brimstone are seen
S6 is favoured by the Vanessids
S7 sees good numbers of grassland species and Vanessids and damp areas favour Orange Tip
S8 has high counts particularly Meadow Browns and ringlets
Results: 2022 and long term look
After a lower than average year in 2021 this year is up a bit but this masks a good many substantial trends most of which are inline with teh Yorkshire trends. Small Skipper was down a bit as elsewhere but good we had the return of the Large Skipper. Brimstine did well as it did elsewhere but all teh white did poorly. Unusually Orange tip was down on thsi site with very good numbers generally while over teh county the trend was for a increase. The migratory Brown Argus had a cracking year as it did on all its lowland sites and its great to see Common Blue really to the population levels of more than a decade ago. Holy Blue boomed everwhere with teh start of a fresh cycle with its parasite with abundance 4 times higher. The biggest story is teh crash in Small Tortoiseshell and particularly Peacock both of which almost failed to produce a summer brood in the extreme heat and few were seen after June! Comma as universally elsewhere had its bets year ever increasing 8 fold on last year and having a super summer generation, Possibly because it chooses to lay eggs in shady places it never suffered as badly as teh other Vanessids. Similarly teh shade loving speckled wood also had one of its best years. Gatekeepr everywhere also boomed after a good year last year and while meadow brown increased somewhat Ringlet fell back as it did in teh majority of sites. Overall it good to see teh trend on all species pretyy consistantly upwards particularly our grassland species like Small Skipper and Gatekeeper.
Results: 2021
Overal counts a little down by about 6% over the 5 year average.
In terms of species there were a good many loosers, particularly Large Skipper has died out and Small Skipper well down which is similar to elsewhere.
Brimstone is up somewhat while both cabbage whites are down particularly Small White. This is much like other sites.
Green-Viened White and Orange Tip as damp lovers are well up. Small Copper and Common Blue are well down similar to elsewhere.
Amongst the vanessids Small Tortoiseshell boomed while other species had a poor year although bucking the trend Peacock did well.
Speckled wood and Ringlet were down as elsewhere while Meadow Brown was up.