Wharram Quarry YWT
Site Details
Recorders: Martin Philips Distance: 832m Altitude 135m Walk Time: 45 mins
The site was actively quarried for chalk between 1919 and the 1940s and was offered to Yorkshire Wildlife Trust in the 1960s by owner Lord Middleton after he noticed bee orchids growing on the quarry floor. A species rich chalk grassland, Wharram Quarry is home to many of the characteristic flowering plants that thrive on the thin Wolds soil. Plants include Colt's foot; Cowslip Thistle broomrape; Wooly thistle; Pyramidal orchid Autumn gentian; Quaking Grass and Carline thistle and Birds foot trefoil is abundant.
Key Butterfly species are Dingy Skipper, Marbled White; Small Heath. The site is carefully managed and a new scrape area created on a 5 year cycle. Teh density of butterflies here are without match in Yorkshire.
Sections:
The sections are fairly similar but of different lengths apart from S10 and S11 which are in more shady rough pasture and was not originally part of the quarry but is under restoration. Dingy Skipper are favouring near the scrape area of S3-S4
Results 2024:
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
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%.
Wharram Quarry had a average year and better than many other dry sites which suffered in 2022 extreme heat and were well down on overall numbers. Species trends tend to follow the county with the big losers being drought sensitive Small Heath and Ringlet being matched by large increases in Marbled White, Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown all of whom had there best year ever across the county. Great to see the Wall Brown storm back as in so many places they lost out. All the skippers lost out . The other big loser was Common Blue likely as a result of the drought. The vanessids stayed in the duldrums but at least they show the first signs of recovery this year by being up on last.
Results 2022:
This dry quarry site was very much down on 2021, nearly a third and almost universally across the species likely because of drought. Of significance is Brown Argus which boomed in most localities did show an increase. Speckled wood also held up well here while it boomed elsewhere. However Dingy skipper numbers halved while the Vanessids were down by even more. Ringlet and Small Heath also halved. Only Marbled white and meadow brown for which this is a very good site held their numbers as they did on most sites.