My garden this Bank Holiday...

...sitting on my thatched swing. Had to put up a couple of parasols up to protect me from sun...too hot for me.

I have been watching Mr and Mrs Blackbird but their behaviour does not make sense. They have been together well over three months now. They appear to have a nest. It is in the usual prickly bush that blackbirds over the years have nested in.

I did Blip about this male blackbird when he was bullying sparrows out of the garden around Christmas.

I will find the link once I have posted this...

https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2392787644980397586

Both Mr and Mrs B leave the nest at the same time and fly around. Sometimes one or other is in the nest.

But neither have brought back any worms to the nest. Not once. It is now May.

Are there eggs in the nest and they have not hatched?

Have they not produced any eggs?

I think they are both young birds, so are probably new to matrimonial issues.

However there is an interesting thing.

Mr B hides in the bushes on the other side of the garden. It is on the site of an old nest. I call it his man den. He waits...and waits...until the interloper arrives.

Mrs B has someone on the side. Her lover comes to visit. Whereupon Mr B shoots out of his man den, straight into the bushes where Mrs B is entertaining her lover in the nest that he built. And chases him furiously out of the garden.

How many times has this happened? I couldn’t tell you. But it takes me back and reminds me of my mother who was twitching the net curtains watching the lady over the road entertaining a gentleman friend when her husband was at work. I was 13 and I was shocked at my mother.

But this has happened happened at least half a dozen times in the last few days when I have been swinging on my swing...

Mr B is constantly on guard in his man den, or on a branch above the nest, or on the roof on a lookout for Mrs B’s bit on the side.

But all is not well in the blackbird kingdom...

Anyway the photos I took this morning.

Top left one is my garden from the swing.

Next two on the right are me disturbing Mrs B in Mr B’s man den. I didn’t realise she was there. And I took the pics from that angle and found I had caught two blurry pics of Mrs B in flight.

The bottom two either side are of a tiny blue butterfly. It seems to settle on the holly. I will have to look up its name later...there have been quite a few in my garden the last few days. Is there such a butterfly as a Holly Blue? I am just making up names here...

Then the one bottom middle. I have to apologise for the tiny orange blur in it. It is of a small white butterfly with bright orange tips to its wings. Looks like a very small cabbage white. Orange tipped Brimstone? Is that a name?

This butterfly would not stay still for a second.

And the pics I did not post were me chasing the spiders round the garden floating on their silken threads....

UPDATE:
It seems the white butterfly is a male and called Orange Tip
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/other-garden-wildlife/insects-and-other-invertebrates/butterflies/orange-tip-butterfly

It seems the little blue butterfly is Holly Blue
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/other-garden-wildlife/insects-and-other-invertebrates/butterflies/holly-blue-butterfly


I do have some ancient protected woodland and meadows, pond and stream at the end of my garden. So I imagine I will be getting a lot more little visitors in the next few days...