Mourning Cloak

I’ve had two firsts today • Meet the Mourning Cloak butterfly who overwinters in Maine and is one of the first to appear on a warm spring day. It seeks out tree sap not flower nectar to survive. I’ve never seen one until today • The other is a butterfly too. We typically see many in mid to late summer except over the past two years we only saw one in September and then two last year in August. We attributed it to drought conditions but it was definitely strange and noticeable (also covid years, weird coincidence) • Oops, sorry to keep you in suspense! It’s May and I actually saw a female Monarch butterfly attempting to lay eggs on milkweed that’s only inches above ground. It’s too early!! We’re wondering if the recent surge of warm weather pulled them further north. Hopefully there’s more, and hopefully our young milkweed will be enough to nourish their caterpillars :) • Happy Monday to you!