On May 30th I saw a black swallowtail butterfly flitting around my herb garden.  A familiar sight, we’d seen many of them when we lived on the east coast of Florida, North Carolina, Nebraska and now again we’re greeted.

I knew what she was doing — laying eggs!  The next day I scoured the herbs for evidence of eggs, but I couldn’t find any.  Apparently I wasn’t looking hard enough.

Today, 7 days later, my dill and parsley are covered in the telltale bird-poop-looking caterpillars!  I counted at least 8 of them out there chowing down.  I don’t think they’ll last very long…I saw some caterpillars a few weeks ago and I’m guessing bluebirds got to them.  While they start out looking like bird poop to deceive predators, but at a certain point they molt out of the poop-skin and end up with more bold stripes.  This is usually when a bird or larger bug will swoop down and get them.