The dainty little holly blue butterfly, lover of our gardens, has been enjoying  a wonderful spring with many more on the wing than usual.

Upper wings are almost bluebell blue when fresh with wide black margins in the female while the male has narrow black borders. Underwings of both sexes are the palest of whitish-blue with a few tiny black dots.

I watched a female fly into the garden hotly chased by a male. She alighted on an ivy leaf, was joined by the male and the pair bonded immediately with no preliminary courtship.

They remained coupled for over an hour  (pictured) until the male eventually left his conquest and flew off to try his luck elsewhere.

Meanwhile, his mate stayed on the leaf to rest as clouds obscured the sun and as dusk  closed in she crawled under the leaf to roost sheltered overnight.

Early next morning she moved once again to the upper leaf surface and as the sun touched her, flew off to begin laying eggs on holly buds.There are  two generations each year and the blue is the only species to lay eggs on different plants for each generation, namely just holly in springtime and ivy buds, pyracantha or similar  in August.

One morning in May a holly blue settled on a bluebell in the garden and created a memorable picture. I look forward to the arrival of the second brood in late July.