Yesterday I was thrilled to spot several Spring Azure butterflies (Celastrina ladon) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. This early-appearing butterfly is one of the tiniest butterflies in our area, with a wing span of about an inch (25 mm). Unlike Mourning Cloak butterflies—like the I featured last week in a blog posting—that overwinter as adults, Spring Azures overwinter in the pupal form, safe inside their chrysalis.
All of the Spring Azures that I saw yesterday were extremely skittish, spending most of their time in flight. Occasionally one would fly near the ground and come close to landing and then abruptly resume its flight. When they did land, the little butterflies almost disappeared into the abundant leaf litter and were tough to photograph.
Nature is coming alive as flowering trees begin to pop and new wildlife species reappear on the scene as we move deeper into March. It won’t be long before osprey, green herons, and great egrets return to our area and I hope to be seeing dragonflies within the next month. It is an exciting time of the year.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Lovely, Mike. Your description of the butterflies fluttering almost continuously, and then touching down for just the briefest moment sounds like many, if not most of my encounters with all butterflies. ☺️
I end up having to chase butterflies a lot to try to get shots. 🙂