Butterfly Conservation Yorkshire

Sun Lane LNR

Burley in Wharfedale

Bradford Council

Site Details

Recorders: Janet Kirikaides, Nyree Fernley (Established in 2003 restarted in 2021 afer 6 year gap ) Distance : 870m Walk time: 40mins

12 acres in size this is a reclaimed domestic tip which required clearing in 1993 to deal with pollution. It is now owned by Bradford Council and maintained by volunteers. Re sown and restored it has a rich variety of sometimes unusual and imported plants and a wide variety of butterflies and a healthy population of Rabbit keep the grass in check. A pebble-filled gully runs across the reserve, and plants like Red Campion, Purple Loosestrife, pink and white Musk Mallow, Yellow Evening Primrose, Viper’s Bugloss with Rosebay Willow herb along the field edge. Geraniums are common with blue Meadow Crane’s-bill, pink flowers of Herb Robert and Shining Crane’s-bill, a tiny Cut-leaved geranium

Sections:

S1 follows the main track westwards and is an annually cut meadow and sees a wide variety of species . This area with planted shrubs is favoured by Holy Blue, Orange Tip.

At S2 we enter a sunken sheltered flower rich gulley by the side of the railway and attracts larger numbers.

S3 with more shade brings more Speckled Woods, Ringlet and with more flower particularly Marjoram which attracts particularly the Vanessids

S4 follows the north edge of the meadow area with woodland to the north, dipping down towards the pond and is a favourtite with Peacock and Brimstone.

S5 is very shady with the lowest counts skirting the pond and under the tree canopy

S6 we join teh road back, skirted by large trees but more open back to the entrance alongside the stream and is dominated by Speckled Wood. Several large Wych Elms grow the hedgerow

2024 Results:

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

Sun Lane compared to the county average did exceptionally well just a tad down on the average -41% ie half numbers! This was mostly down to browns only loosing out a little and being compensated by better numbers of Speckled Wood. Large skipper along with brimstone and Orange tip also did well. The highlight was Peacock double as its recovery continues after two years of drought while in contrast small tortoiseshell drops to an all time low mostly because it lays its eggs much earlier in spring while the Peacock waits sometimes to late June to lay and thus avoided some of the worse weather.

Transect reports

2023 Results:

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%.

Sun Lane overall numbers bounced back this year with a 30% rise but not quite competing with 2013-14 peak the best 2 years for this site and also Yorkshire's best two years. The only difference between those top years and this year are Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell hit and all time high and this year an all time low. Species trends are very close to the county trends . Peacock is showing signs of recovery from its all time low last year and even Small Tortoiseshell showed a small improvement over its 20 year low last year . The big winners were Comma, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Red Admiral and Brimstone all of which hit all times high in Yorkshire this year. Great too see the Gatekeeper return after an absence of some years.

2022 Results:

This sites transect was restarted in 2021 teh first since 2015 It had a good record of previous years see below.

For trending calculations we look only look at the 2021-22 season. 2022 was well up on teh previous year. While both golden Skippers were down and Whites up and some improvements in the Blues family most significantly with Holly blue booming. Small Torts and Peacock were well down as throughout the county with the heatwave while in contrast Comma boomed.. well over doubling. Gatekeeper has become extinct these last two years which seems odd

Some tentative graph have been drawn showing the longer term trends NB but without the missed years

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