Holly blues

 

A female holly blue Celastrina argiolus, like a flake of blue sky that has fallen to Earth, has been laying eggs on holly flower buds in the garden.

When we first came to live in Co. Durham in 1975 several butterflies that I had been familiar with in the south of the country were nowhere to be seen. There were no holly blues, commas had been extinct here for a century and speckled woods, small skippers and ringlets were very uncommon. Since then, as the climate has changed and winters have become milder, they have all become common. Speckled woods regularly breed in my garden now, here in the foothills of the North Pennines.

I didn’t seen a holly blue here in the North East until 2014, when I found one under the Byker viaducts in Newcastle, of all places. Then in 2017 I saw another in Sunderland.

In 2019 they turned up in my garden in Durham in spring and it was clear that they must have laid eggs on the holly hedge because the summer generation emerged and then laid eggs on ivy flower buds The adult butterflies seem attracted to forget=me-not and alkanet flowers in spring and the summer generation nectar on borage, devil’s bit scabious, marjoram and thyme flowers.

Feed me! First magpie fledgling of 2026

 The first fledging of the year in the garden yesterday - a very demanding magpie, with two harassed parents that were feeding it with worms and insect larvae collected from our neighbour's lawn. 

Looks like these birds have only fledged one offspring this spring, but they have been battling with crows and squirrels that have been predating their eggs and nestlings. Usually they raise two or three fledglings in their spring brood.

Wood pigeons: the mating game

 The wood pigeon breeding season in our garden never seems to end, but it reaches a peak in spring. Show-off parabolic flights, ridiculous chasing, bowing and tail-fanning courtship rituals, bouts of violence between rival males - all part of the endless pageant of ornithological entertainint when I look out of the window.

Here are a few pictures from a recent performance.

A seemingly disinterested female looks on while rival males slug it out with wing blows, until one is knocked off the fence ..... but wait, he's not deterred ...

.... he circles back, swoops so low over his rival that he's forced to duck his head, sees his opportunity and descends on the female ...

.... who is taken by surprise while his alarmed, outflanked rival looks on ..

.... but she bats her assailant away with her wings...

----- whereupon the outflanked bird seizes his opportunity 

... and so it goes, most days in March and April