As our friends and family deal with yet another winter storm in New England, it feels a bit mean to be posting photos of butterflies. Yet below all that snow and frozen leaf litter, Mourning Cloak pupae lie waiting to emerge once Spring arrives. Here, they came to check out the Texas oranges the first day I put them out (in Arizona.)

One of the rather common butterflies, not by appearance but by number, that I see in the Southwest in the winter is the Pipevine Swallowtail. This male was pretty spiffy in the afternoon sunlight. We should see them in New England this summer.