Spring Azure butterflies dance in Sherborn on Mother’s Day

The Spring Azure is one of the earliest butterflies to emerge. You may have seen Spring Azures in your yard and not noticed them because they are so small and quick. They flit above the grass and are quickly gone. But if you can get up close, you’ll see a flash of sky blue wings. When they perch, they show their wings’ silver undersides with subtle dark markings.

I’ve seen butterflies already this spring - a Mourning Cloak during a walk in conservation land in Dover and white cabbage and yellow sulfur butterflies flitting through the yard. But Spring Azures have always seemed special to me, a gentle sign that spring has truly arrived. On Mother’s Day, I saw first one Spring Azure, then another, and over the course of the next hour, about a dozen of them in my backyard, flitting out of the woods and over a bare patch of soil, perching on wild apple blossoms, and then flying off to my neighbors’ yard. At one point a pair of butterflies swirled around my head as I tried to photograph them.

It was as if Mother Nature herself was trying to reassure me that she’s still here, still thriving.

Spring Azure caterpillars eat the emerging buds of viburnums, dogwoods (Cornus species), and New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus). We have a beloved native dogwood (Cornus florida) in the yard and a few years ago I planted some alternative leaved dogwood and gray dogwoods at the edge of the woods. Doug Tallamy’s book Bringing Nature Home has inspired me to add more native plants to our property because they support so much more bird and insect life. A viburnum bush that I planted years ago has grown to gigantic size and is also the favorite nesting place of a pair of catbirds. So the butterflies have many options for their larval food. And I don’t use any chemicals on our yard so insects can thrive.

I wasn’t able to get a photo of a Spring Azure, but my son, who was visiting me for a Mother’s Day brunch on the patio, is quicker, and he captured one perching on a viburnum leaf. I couldn’t ask for a better Mother’s Day surprise.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms who nurture children and nature!