Spring Azure

What a lovely name for a butterfly - the spring azure (Celastrina ladon). It's one of the first to show up in the spring, and quite diminutive, about an inch in size with wings closed. 

When it flies, the inside of its wings displays a beautiful pastel blue, but disappointingly, I wasn't able to capture it with its wings spread. 😞

The butterfly was feeding on the tiny azure bluets that grow up in lawns in clumps - the flowers are small and delicate, so pursuing this flying beauty from clump to clump in the lawn had me leopard-crawling all over the still-damp spongey earth, with very little success.

But I had fun trying!