Country diary: A holly blue butterfly at the very edges of existence

Crook, County Durham: It is almost miraculous that this tiny beauty is here at all. Now it has to contend with an upset climateIn the cool hour after sunrise on 5 August, a scorching day during the heatwave, I watched shafts of sunlight piercing the hedge, sweeping across the garden. For a moment, a spotlight fell on a garden spider's half-finished orb web, its owner threading the final silken spiral on to radiating spokes.As the sun rose, the sunbeam shifted and the snare became almost invisible, a deathtrap for any passing insect. A small, vulnerable butterfly, jinking between the shrubs, settled on a conifer branch nearby: a newly hatched holly blue, with immaculate wings like pale azure silk. Continue reading...