Maritime and sub-maritime habitats; undercliffs, village gardens and hedgebanks. (GB, GB-CI)
Parks, cemeteries, around buildings, in gardens and along wooded banks and forest edges, always in the vicinity of a few dozen square meters of massively flowering ivy. Nests in stony or sandy soil or loess of, for example, paths, vineyards, cliffs, cemeteries, steep (road) edges and in loamy roofs, sometimes under overhanging ivy or between dense, rugged vegetation. Nesting sites include the quarry Duchateau on the Sint Pietersberg (Limburg), on the upper edges of the marlstone rocks, in loess with marlstone chunks in fairly slippery slopes. On the Hoge Fronten of Maastricht the species uses more or less steep loessic hills and artificial earth walls (Ivo Raemakers, pers. obs.).