Butterfly Season Begins

I was sitting in the sun yesterday afternoon in my garden and saw this beautiful Giant Swallowtail butterfly floating around all my plants. 

 It floated lazily in circles, around the yard, out in the alley, back in the yard, circling, circling.  It was huge.

Finally it found what it was looking for:  my Rue plants.  I had planted them last year specifically for the Giant Swallowtail -- it is their main host plant.

She bounced around on the two plants and finally came to rest and laid a few eggs:

And then floated lazily in circles all over the yard again...

Here are two posts from last year about the swallowtail and Rue.  I wrote about them in June -- they are really early this year!

http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2011/06/more-on-rue.html


http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2011/06/rue-and-giant-swallowtail.html