Wildlife Gardening Pays Off

Today is my daughter’s first day of preschool. I took the opportunity (in between rain showers) to spend 45 minutes weeding my long-neglected garden. I was thrilled to find four swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on the remnants of my bronze fennel, which I planted specifically as a host plant (I am not a fennel eater). I don’t know what variety of swallowtail they are, though an internet search suggests they may be black swallowtails. I hope they pupate soon, because there’s not much left to eat on my ragged plants.
Below is a shot where you can easily see three of the four.

You can see more shots in the extended entry, linked below.