Wenthillside
Private butterfly reserve
Owned by Les Driffield
Details
Walkers: Les Driffield Distance 1920m walk time approx 1 hour Altitude 39m
Wenthillside is a privately owned and managed eleven acre conservation site in West Yorkshire.bought in 2013 and the lower field in 2017, mostly down to rough un-farmed grass with several small areas of trees and scrub, the lower 3.3 acre field bare agricultural destined to be a wildflower meadow. A SW facing magnesium limestone hillside with a large and varied wildlife content. To date 23 different species of butterfly, 19 regularly, including a large colony of Marbled White
Sections
S1 is an old agricultural field and somewhat improved and has been reseeded and replanted grassalnd. It has the highest counts with Meadow Browns and Gatekeeper at their most numerous here . It also a favourite with Brown Argus , Common Blue, DG Fritillary , Small Copper and the Vanessids and the Whites
S2 with its hedge line and Speckled Woods appear.
S3 comes onto the calcareous grassalnds plus woodland mosaic is the most shaded area and Speckled Woods are at the highest score
S4 grassland are the home of the Marbled Whites and Large Skippers plus Ringlets but also Silver washed Fritillary are seen close to the wood to the west
S5 boundary is an agricultural field at teh top of the hill is similar to S4 but numbers a little lower
Results 2023
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%.
Wenthillside had a very good year with new species and a big increase in overall numbers much greater than the county average. The species trends follow fairly closely the county with large increases in brown family particularly Gatekeeper, Marbled White and Meadow Brown. In contrast to the drought sensitive Ringlet dropped back . Small Heath also appeared for the first time along with Wall which almost everywhere else saw a decline so this is promising. Speckled Wood also saw a rise along with the vanessids bouncing back after a poor year last year. Dark-green Fritillary had a very poor year everywhere and this is reflected here. The whites were also abundant with a big increase of Small White liely as a consequence of migration.
