I saw my first butterfly of the year on March 20 – the first day of spring. It was a Comma butterfly. Named for a comma-shaped marking on its underwing, This butterfly is similar to it’s cousin, the Question Mark and, like you may guess, sports a mark shaped like a question mark on its underwing. They are collectively sometimes referred to as punctuation butterflies for this reason.
Most people think of butterflies as sweetly sipping nectar delicately from beautiful flowers. This particular species prefers tree sap, rotting fruit and even dung! It overwinters in bark or leaf litter and emerges on warm winter/early spring days before too many flowers are blooming. But tree sap is flowing and seeps quietly from winter injuries.The melted snow also reveals rotted fruit and ahem — even dung!
This spring entered drearily and still seems to be in the grips of winter, but there is still plenty of enthusiastic life participants making their way to warmer days.
Happy spring!