Common blue, Polyommatus icarus. Male upper sides are an iridescent lilac blue with a thin black border. Females are brown with a row of red spots along the edges. Undersides have a greyish ground colour in the males and more brownish in the females. Both sexes have a row of red spots along the edge of the hind wings.
Comma, Polygonia c-album. A sudden decline meant that in 1920 there were only two sightings in the UK. By 1930 the population recovered and it is now one of the more familiar butterflies. The species survives the winter in the adult stage or can hibernate. Larvae that develop early in the season go on to produce another generation. It gets its […]
Andrena cineraria. Females create nests underground by excavating burrows in bare/sparsely vegetated earth often in sandy soils, so the acid grasslands at Crouch End Hill is a good place to find one. They feed from a wide variety of spring flowers and shrubs, including buttercups, hawthorn, blackthorn, gorse and fruit trees. Photo Tristan Bantock
Brimstone, Gonepteryx rhamni. Often the first and last butterfly to be seen in the season. The female’s wings are much paler than the male’s, almost white. The angular shape and veining on their wings gives them a leaflike look. They never settle with their wings open. Photo: © Tristan Bantock
Chiffchaff, Phylloscopus collybita. A small olive-brown warbler which actively flits through trees and shrubs, with a distinctive tail-wagging movement. Less bright than the similar willow warbler and readily distinguished by its song, from where it gets its name. Picks insects from trees and also flies out to snap them up in flight. Seen all year round, but most arrive in late […]
Chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs. The chaffinch is the UK’s second commonest breeding bird, and is arguably the most colourful of the UK’s finches. Its patterned plumage helps it to blend in when feeding on the ground and it becomes most obvious when it flies, revealing a flash of white on the wings and white outer tail feathers. It does not feed openly […]
Carrion crow, Corvus corone. The all-black carrion crow is one of the cleverest, most adaptable of our birds. It is often quite fearless, although it can be wary of man. They are fairly solitary, usually found alone or in pairs. The closely related hooded crow has recently been split as a separate species. Carrion crows will come to gardens for food […]
Bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula. The male is unmistakable with his bright pinkish-red breast and cheeks, grey back, black cap and tail, and bright white rump. The flash of the rump in flight and the sad call note are usually the first signs of bullfinches being present. They feed voraciously on the buds of various trees in spring and were once a ‘pest’ […]
Blue tit, Cyanistes caeruleus. A colourful mix of blue, yellow, white and green makes the blue tit one of our most attractive and most recognisable garden visitors. In winter, family flocks join up with other tits as they search for food. A garden with four or five blue tits at a feeder at any one time may be feeding 20 or […]
Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla. A distinctive greyish warbler, the male has a black cap, and the female a chestnut one. Its delightful fluting song has earned it the name ‘northern nightingale’. Although primarily a summer visitor birds from Germany and north-east Europe are increasingly spending the winter in the UK. They eat insects and berries. Photo: © Kevin B Agar
