Mourning Cloak Butterfly

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This is the first butterfly shot I took this year. The Mourning Cloaks overwinter as adults and are the first butterflies of spring in my region. They are one of my favorite subjects. They spend a lot of time on the ground, flying around finding food and defending their territory. When they find a tree leaking sap you can take photographs to your heart’s content, for the most part they will ignore you (I plan to post more shots soon). This was a unique opportunity to get a face on portrait of this butterfly that also showed some of its colorful wings. It was in surprisingly good shape; when butterflies age their wings show nicks and lost portions. I was not expecting to see insects so early in the year (April) so my gear was bird focused and I shot this with a 300mm lens at F5.