I awakened one mild twilight, gazing through the emerald veil into the forest beyond the brook while listening to the morning symphony with gratitude in my heart. Warbler Hollow is a magical place, especially in the dawning, and I am usually up and wandering outdoors within a few minutes.

After the sun rose over the horizon one warm morning in early June, golden wings fluttered through my garden like a dream. Entranced and jubilant, I watched the tigers hover, dip, and soar as they lit to feed on every blossoming wildflower. When the crabapples blushed pink to magenta, I was quite literally inundated by bees and swallowtails!

This year, many of the tigers that had wintered over seem to have hatched all at once. So many wildflower choices for nectar! Bloodroot, Greater Celandine. Violets. Solomons Seal. Wild columbine in every shade. When the crabapples blushed pearl pale pink to magenta, each branch was splashed with lemony yellow!

Honeysuckle bushes were covered. Wild cherry trees/shrubs – pin, chokecherry, and black cherries had swallowtails clinging to their blossoms. Tigers swam through all the lilacs. When the lemon lilies began to bloom, I had hundreds of swallowtails – literally.

During the last week of June, with most of the wildflowers around the house seeded up, many swallowtails have moved into my field to feast with great enthusiasm on prickly wild roses as the lemon lilies fade and milkweed season begins.

I suspect that most are laying eggs on their local host plants like lilacs, wild carrots, poplars, pussy willows, wild cherries, milkweed, and ash, to mention a few possibilities. Others may still be hatching.

Around the house during the last week in June, I saw them hugging the nitrogen-rich wild blue and purple vetch, lavender heal all, and the last of the giant dandelions that are still growing in the shade.

A whole bevy of black swallowtails appeared the third week in June and rapidly moved into the field. Their coloring is variable and astonishingly beautiful.

These black swallowtail varieties can easily be confused with others – the pipevine and spicebush swallowtails – so it’s important to pay close attention to details.

Eggs are laid on lilacs, members of the wild carrot family, poplar, ash, willow, wild cherry, milkweed, etc., just as their relatives do.

Both tiger and black swallowtails pass through several instars, eventually becoming either fat lime green caterpillars with amazing false eyes or, in the case of the black swallowtail, yellow, white, and black striped caterpillars that are just as compelling to witness.

Here, the black swallowtails seem to gravitate to one plant in the wild carrot family to lay their eggs. I rarely see the green-eyed swallowtail caterpillars, probably because their hosts are too big (wild cherries). They could also be laying eggs in the field without me knowing it, because there is so much milkweed crowding around the crabapples, wild roses, and lilacs that I don’t normally wade through this waist-high wildflower haven during the hot summer months.

This field belongs to Nature.

The next round of adult swallowtails appeared ( mid-July) after a dip in numbers. This brood may winter over spinning hard brown chrysalises, which will become the first adult swallowtails I will see next spring.

What’s most important to me is that these butterflies live here all year in some form because, except for the fritillaries, they are my favorites, and some are around all summer. I surmise they emerge at different times.

Male tigers have black on their hindwings, while the females have areas painted in cobalt blue.

Black male swallowtails feature a large row of yellow-colored spots across the middle of ki’s* wings. The female has smaller spots and a larger area of deep blue on her lower wings.

Early on cool mornings or after a rain, I often find swallowtails perched, wings outstretched, clinging to a bush or plant. Still sluggish, it is critical not to pick up one of these butterflies who are drying their wings.

When touched, precious protective scales will be removed and the butterfly will be compromised, at risk for easy predation. (Children need to be taught to leave butterflies alone by adults who care).

These scales provide other critical functions:

Scales help butterflies camouflage themselves and help attract mates. They provide structural support that helps the butterfly resist wing tears, as well as affecting ki’s ability to absorb or reflect sunlight or to regulate body temperature. Perhaps most critically, handling can compromise a butterfly’s ability to fly.

This caveat is true for all butterflies. Please resist the temptation to pick a butterfly up for any reason at all. We are steeped in species decline, and this includes our butterflies, which are disappearing in huge numbers across the planet. Scientists are calling for urgent butterfly conservation efforts on a global level.

This year, I am still waiting for the second tiger caterpillar stage in the hopes that I might just find one lime green caterpillar around the house somewhere. As of this writing, I have only found one.

Presently, I am feeling tremendous gratitude for all butterflies, since as of the third week in July, overall, there are fewer around than ever before. I take deep pleasure from each moment spent with these astonishing aerial natural wonders.

* Ki – Scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer’s word used to personalize any creature in nature.