A “veteran” Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)

This find made my day! This was the first time ever that I saw a Mourning Cloak in the wild.
I've developed a kind of “sensor” for spotting butterfly movements (far from my lepidopterologist partner, though) and was focusing on some Skippers when out of the corner of my eyes I noticed this really large butterfly zooming by. Because of its dark overall colour and the white rim I immediately recognised it, and could barely contain myself with joy.

Well, about half an hour of excitement later with me running after it, losing it again, spotting it sitting in a perfect spot, having to endure it being disturbed by a cyclist, more waiting and running, it finally settled on a dead reed. That's when I noticed how battered it looked, far from the splendour it might have displayed had it been freshly emerged.
No wonder - the adults fly from end of Juli to about June. So this fellow already survived the winter (and we had an amazing amount of snow early last winter). No wonder it looked a bit rough…