We were just commenting a couple of weeks ago that we hadn’t seen a Mourning Cloak butterfly here on the Cape in a couple of years. And then we saw this flash of flutter along the trail while hiking at Wiley Park a few days ago.
This gorgeous Mourning Cloak butterfly landed on an old log and stayed there long enough for us to get lots of photographs. Isn’t he just beautiful? I love the blue dots along his wings.
The unique Water-Willow is an 3-9 foot aquatic shrub with 1/2 to 1 inch magenta flowers that blooms in July and August. (Click on blog link for other photo.)
I’ve seen them growing in the shallow waters on the Red Maple Swamp Trail at Fort Hill, the Silver Spring Trail at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellfleet or at Wiley Park by the bridge. It is really cool to see how they grow in clusters along the main stem.
Have you seen any Water-Willows this summer? #eastham #wellfleet
