Found on a relatively warm afternoon in a large, sunny, opening within surrounding woodland and forest of Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) and Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens).

Shapiro(1) mentions that Mourning Cloaks hibernate over winter as adults, emerging in spring to mate. They will sometimes rouse themselves from their torpor on warm, sunny, winter days and briefly come out to drink/feed. According to his records, they are rarely seen in the Bay Area before Jan. 25...so this was a somewhat rare occasion :-)

The individual here was very single-mindedly probing with its proboscis (for moisture, minerals & nutrients?) in a clump of recently deposited horse manure.