Although there is still some snow around, more hints of spring appeared today with my troublesome chipmunks emerging from their winter dens as the call of the killdeer could be heard in the field. And on my lawn, my cat tried to catch the first butterfly of the season, a Mourning Cloak. The adult butterfly hibernates during the winter and is often the first spotted flying in the spring.

Butterfly Out of Hibernation

March came in like a lamb, and with sunshine and a temperature in the low fifties, March went out like a lamb too. Or maybe floated out like a butterfly, as one of the first butterflies of the season was enjoying the sunshine on my lawn this afternoon. The Mourning Cloak has one brood in July and after flying around in the summer and fall, it hibernates over winter before mating in spring.

Mourning Cloak Butterfly