Hairstreaks, Coppers and Blues are a seemingly mixed bag of butterflies. This is a shot of a group of azures attracted to a splatter of bird scat. That is a Mournful Thyris (a moth) looking so checkered in the middle. The azures are still under study but we now have both a spring and summer species.

The Hairstreaks are the big spring show in the butterfly world in the south. Several species remain into the summer flight season in our area but the first white flowers in April and May are the places to see the intricate spring Hairstreak group. Many of them have tree-feeding caterpillar species and thus the wooded Ozarks and Ouachitas are rich with Hairstreak fodder. In good years one can see hundreds of Hairstreaks in a spring afternoon.