MissSherry,

I enjoy seeing them in the yard. Was getting ready to take a photo of one and the male Phoebe swopped in and nabbed him. When ever he catches a snack for the youngins', he flies into the garage first to see what I'm doing if I'm working in there. Then he takes it to the nest sitting on top of a motion sensor bulb over the garage door. Some mornings if I'm busy packing boxes, he'll sit on my weedeater handle and watch.

Phoebes are by far my favorite bird. It's a shame they do grab a butterfly on ocassion.
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randy

Hehehe!! What a funny place to build a nest - they must be like wrens! Carolina wrens have made nests in all sorts of strange places around my house and garage, but their nests are almost entirely closed, with an opening on one side, so I never see the babies until they leave. Too bad your phoebes take butterflies! I never see that here, but then in these woods, there are so many other insects for birds to feed their nestlings - seeing you call them youngins, reminds me of my old Daddy, that's what he called children! :)
I'm a big bird lover, too - they're second in my heart only to butterflies!
MissSherry

I'm got a carolina aster coming in the mail in a week...MissSherry, I thought is was a climber, does it like a trellis, or do you have other ideas?

Yup, I just saw off a nest of carolina wrens, they use the same hanging basket every year! It looks like both parents are involved in raising the young?

MissSherry, it's funny that Dave Wagner has never seen the caterpillar of a Pearl Crescent since that's probably the most abudant butterfly here in CT. Either the caterpillar is hard to see or it's because they are so common here everyone thinks they are too common to get excited about?

Personally, I love them and between them and the American Coppers., I can always count on seeing a butterfly on my hikes!

We're very lucky to have Dave Wagner as a member of our CT butterfly group. He's even more crazy about caterpillars thatn most of us are!

Marynn

So you've met him, Maryann! That's great - I'm sure he's quite a help! He says in his book that PCs are among the most common butterflies in Connecticut.
I can't quite figure out what to do with my Carolina aster, Paul - I've never seen a plant like this! It doesn't climb like regular vines, but the limbs won't stand up on their own like a bush, so I tied them to my picket fence with twine - I need to go out this morning and tie some more branches that are laying on the ground. My hope is that once the branches grow taller than the fence, I can twine them through the top of the pickets, and then the branches won't just lay on the ground.
MissSherry