Do you see what I see??
No, wait. Totally premature question. Please excuse me. I'm just STILL so beyond excited by what I "think" I witnessed, my thoughts are a jumbled mess & I've gotten WAY ahead of myself!
Bear with me while I work (in the proper order) at getting to the exciting part ~ which, amazingly enough, aren't these photos I was originally extremely thrilled to score.
Thrilled because I've only been lucky enough to see a Black Swallowtail in my garden one other time.
After leisurely sipping nectar from 'Peacock' Buddleia davidii, this tattered beauty headed straight for the bronze fennel:
That's where the intro question comes from (and what has me all aflutter):
I think I witnessed/captured the Swallowtail laying eggs???? Do you think so too??? I can hardly stand it ~ first the Monarch caterpillars and now possibly future Swallowtails?? oh, say you think it's so too!!!!! That would make for an amazing year in the garden....
I see how its body is curved in the last image. So maybe so!
Posted by: Kala | September 09, 2011 at 03:35 AM
It sure looks like it. I hope so!
Posted by: tina | September 09, 2011 at 04:52 AM
Yep your going to have some baby caterpillars! I would go out there and capture the caterpillars as soon as you see them. I haven't seen any blackswallow tails around my place for a couple of weeks now. They were loving my zinnia's. Here's a cool link about the black swallowtail.
http://butterflies.heuristron.net/butterflies/blackSwallowtail.html
Enjoy!
Tammy
Posted by: Tammy | September 09, 2011 at 08:10 AM
WOW - that is amazing Kathleen - certainly looks like it. Hope you post pics of the caterpillars. Now I want to go look around to see if anything wonderful is going on in my yard. I haven't seen a butterfly for weeks here...makes me sad.
Posted by: Dana | September 09, 2011 at 06:00 PM
Pretty exciting Kathleen. I had a lot of parsley this summer and no caterpillars ate any of it! We were not without butterflies, guess they just found food elsewhere.
Good find!
Posted by: Janet, The Queen of Seaford | September 09, 2011 at 07:06 PM
So blessed ... and how beautiful!
Posted by: joey | September 09, 2011 at 10:41 PM
If you saw the butterfly dipping down here tail repeatedly, you likely witnessed it laying eggs. Now keep watch for the cats! I've seen many cats here, but have never found a chrysalis. Darn it! Thanks so much for the purple poppy seeds, I sure appreciate it! Aren't you just loving those Queen Red Lime zinnia's? They have been incredible.
Posted by: RobinL | September 11, 2011 at 06:10 PM
How exciting! The Black Swallowtail cats ate all of DH's parsley, but there are Black Swallowtails all over the garden and they are so lovely aren't they? I will have to try Bronze Fennel next year too.
Posted by: sweetbay | September 14, 2011 at 06:58 PM
Very cool!!!!
Posted by: Victoria | September 28, 2011 at 02:02 PM