I've been watching them all summer. Just beautiful. Lots of swallowtails, but some iridescent black/blue ones, too. They're on my ... butterfly bushes!! and hibiscus, and lots of black 'n blue sage. Along with the hummingbirds!

I'm in north central Connecticut Z6a and haven't seen even one butterfly this season. We've had a drought since the beginning of the year but I think other factors are the reason.

I've seen a really unusual number of eastern black swallowtail caterpillars on my dill and parsley this year. Practically to pest levels, although I let them be and just made do with less dill for my cooking. Is this some kind of mast year for them or something? If not, I'm going to have to figure something out. This is my second year gardening in a new house that didn't have a garden previously, so I'm not sure whether there was a population explosion this year or it just took the butterflies a while to discover that I had dill.

Do EBS feed on rue? If so, maybe I can plant a rue plant or two next year and move some of the caterpillars into that?

Also, where do the darn things go to pupate? I see the last instars getting really huge, then they just disappear. I guess some get eaten by birds, etc., but I have never seen a EBS chrysalis.

Yes they do feed on rue and also the Giant swallowtail feed on it as well. My BSTs do the same thing. I only had bronze fennel and they didn't touch my parsley at all haha. It's great to hear though. Hoping more people start to do butterfly gardening.