First butterfly of the season

Around 4:00 p.m. on Friday, March 29, 2013, I saw a Mourning Cloak quickly fly around our backyard.

Mourning Cloaks survive our local winters by hibernating as adult butterflies. Unless a predator snags it, the Mourning Cloak will survive any forthcoming cold, spring weather because one item on its to-do list is to mate.

The earliest returning flycatcher bird species to our area is the Eastern Phoebe, which normally arrives by late March in our area. Eastern Phoebes will eat a butterfly.

The mourning cloak is another of Ohio's hibernating butterflies. The late summer adults may live eight months; this is longer than any other Ohio non-hibernating resident butterfly.

It can be found in all forested regions of the state and is often seen on warm sunny winter and early spring days flying around and basking in wooded clearings.

Overwintered adults mate in the spring.

[Mourning Cloak] can be found from March through October, though it peaks in June and July.

Mourning Cloaks do hibernate. They will find a tree cavity, or crawl underneath some loose bark. By overwintering, Mourning Cloaks get a head start over other butterflies in the Spring.

Like most butterflies, Mourning Cloaks are preyed upon by birds and other insect-eating animals.

tags: #nature - #insects - #butterfly - #home