Oh gosh, I am SO excited about this butterfly! It's a female!! Cathy, I'm not sure exactly where the "black spot in the third yellow spot" is? I didn't actually observe her laying any eggs, but that doesn't mean she didn't. Ugh, I should really check the rue carefully (seeds came from you Cathy) but they are really bushy little plants, not easy to see eggs! Very tedious egg-hunting, I have tried to find BST eggs and cats and the only time I have found them is when I observed exactly where the female oviposited. Also found 2 5th instar cats this year on the rue. Monarch eggs are so much easier to find. Course the Rue is growing for the Black Swallowtails, NEVER thought I'd see a Giant. Such an exciting butterfly day! 3 Monarchs eclosed and I saw 2 wild ones in the garden too.

I haven't really noticed a preference for any particular color, they like them all about equally. Ellen's Blue is worth your consideration, because it's a beautiful color and it makes so MANY blooms! Black Knight is beautiful, but it isn't nearly as floriferous. Royal Red is great, makes a lot of reddish purple blooms, but it gets HUGE! I love my White Profusion - it makes a continuing supply of white blooms, and I keep its size manageable by pruning it short every spring. I should have done the same thing with my Royal Red, maybe it wouldn't have gotten so out of control. Any you pick will be fine. MissSherry

Thanks to all for your very nice comments, We love to share our birds... it adds to our joy of them when others enjoy them also. :) jannd and glenda - We shoot with Canon S3 and S5 cameras to which we often attach a Sony 1.7x Teleconverter: These Canon models are both superceded now, but can still be found on ebay etc. We've been pleased to make some nice pictures with them, but there are many similar (and superior) cameras available from various manufacturers. I think it matters much more that the user becomes comfortable enuf with the camera's controls to be able to respond quickly when the shot presents. We shoot in Manual mode and adjust settings for each shot or series. There are just too many variables of light, and distance, and composition from shot to shot, so we can't recommend any specific setting. Generally tho: We keep the ISO setting as low as possible (to minimize noise). We use Spot metering as a guide to set our exposures to -1/3 at the brightest part of the bird. (to avoid blowing whites). We shoot in High Continuous burst mode (a very modest 2+ frames/sec on our cameras)... and usually capture several or as many frames as possible while the birds are in our viewfinder. You never know when that one lovely pose may be offered. :) Otherwise, our best advice is... Spend as much time with your birds as you can, and take a LOT of pictures of them. Getting close is paramount, and they do become accustomed to your presence after awhile. Don't be afraid to experiment, and try to understand what settings and circumstances caused the blurry, dark, blown, and out-of-focus shots you get. Learning to use your camera takes practice, and nothing will improve your photos more. Hope this is helpful. Happy birding all, Kenn

southern IL. We FINALLY just got hummers two weekends ago, and we've started seeing a few orioles and summer tanagers. Still, no grosbeaks.