Posting hurriedly today. My darling daughter is arriving Friday for a wedding dress fitting, and I am sooo behind in wedding dress making that I am sure I will be up half the next two nights!
Recently brochures from Rain Forest Publications arrived. Don’t you love pocket guides, for the very reason the name infers–so easy to tuck along when traveling and hiking. That’s my photo on the cover of “Mexico Butterflies.” The photo was taken not in Mexico, but in Gloucester!
Be on the lookout for the first butterfly of spring, which will most likely be the Mourning Cloak Butterfly. Mourning Cloaks do not spend the winter in the cool volcanic mountains of Mexico as do the Monarchs, or as a chrysalis in our gardens, like the Black Swallowtail, or as a caterpillar rolled up in a tight little ball under a leaf, as does the Wooly Bear, but as an adult butterfly!
Pussy Willow (Salix discolor)
During the winter months Mourning Cloaks live tucked away in cracks and crevices, between chinks of tree bark, for example. At the first warm breath of spring they begin to take flight, searching for a mate. You’ll often see them on the wing around Pussy Willows, one of the Mourning Cloak caterpillar’s food plants.
Mourning Cloak image courtesy wiki commons media
Good Morning Gloucester 
The pocket cover guide looks great. i love that photo. Congratulations!
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The trip to Mexico paid dividends all the way around – Guide are a plus to take a long for the fun or reference. Saw a cane Toad yesterday slowing creeping of the roadway little early and was moving slow 🙂 Dave & Kim 🙂
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The cover photo was taken in Gloucester.
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My bad I saw Mexico and assumed it was information from that way thanks for clarifying this! 🙂 Dave
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