Yes, patience is the key - but alas, I rarely abide by it myself :o) Also depends on what nectar plants you have...and what color the blossoms are. You have a great plan providing different plant heights - although the "eight feet above ground" is a tad high if you're wanting to photograph butterflies - but it will bring in those flying over your fence :o) Flowering trees are good for that too. Also depends on what's around your neighborhood - if everyone around you has nectar sources well, that will keep butterflies busy elsewhere. Some butterflies will stay within an area of about fifty feet - and you might end up seeing the same butterfly day in and day out. As for the ladybugs - I get them on my milkweeds and they control the aphids - have never noticed them eating any Monarch or Queen eggs nor any of the first or second instar caterpillars. Then again...might not be the right time of day or season. Some species prefer to lay eggs around 9 in the morning, others around noon or 1 pm and yet others late in the afternoon up to about 8 at night. If you have the book "Field Guide to Butterflies of North America - Kaufman Focus Guide" - it will tell you when the butterfly flies and how many broods to expect a year. Although Spring time is usually means the butterflies will show up for us the Fall season is the best time for butterfly activity. Keep checking your larval host plants - butterflies have a way of sneaking past you and laying eggs without you being the wiser until one day you look outside and see gobs of caterpillars happily munching on their host food plant! Will tell you I watched a Dainty Sulphur hone in on a single six inch pot of Tiny Tim (the only one in my yard) a couple of days ago. It took that wee butterfly less than 4 seconds to fly up to the plant and lay an egg. I couldn't get a photo of her ovipositing at all!!! Am sure you'll be seeing butterflies soon!!! Do you know what butterflies are flitting around your parsley and dill? Am assuming you are seeing Black Swallowtails since that is their larval host. You might be seeing males patrolling the area in search of females :o) ~ Cat

Sometimes it takes 4 or 5 days after the nest is built for the blues to start laying eggs. I strung fishing line on either side of the entrance hole. I used 4 tacks...two on the top on either side of the hole and two on the bottom. Just wrap the fishing line around the tacks on either side of the hole, close to the opening but of courses not blocking it. I found out how to do it online. I leave it there all of the time. That is supposed to help. I also use a sparrow spooker after the first egg is laid. I have 3 baby blues now.

Well I was so busy I was unable to visit the forums for responses. Kendra I haven't heard or seen HOWR in the vicinity. To add to that, the blues and swallows laying are around 100 yards apart. This is my neighborhood backyard site that has 2 pairs spaced 20 ft between boxes and about 100 or so yards apart. Nor have I found any destroyed eggs. I had HOWR problems in the past and that's why I moved the boxes...they are in my neighbor's massive field. Okay...The TRES and Blues didn't lay any more eggs! The TRES still have just TWO and they don't appear to be incubating. the other TRES nest that has 4 eggs are still unhatched (presumably gone bad due to upper 40 degree weather a few days ago) Another strange thing...at site #2 the swallows layed just 3 eggs and not sure if THEY are even incubating! What it the world is wrong with my birds this year?! By the way, I now think I've lost 3 female bluebirds already this year! If I lose one more I will top last year's record! Which was 3 in one season! I saw the male bluebird perched on the sparrow spooker in the Am and the powerlines in the PM. No sign of Mrs. Blue. Really wish I knew. This is the STRANGEST nesting season ever! My bluebirds can't even manage to complete a clutch! I might not see nestlings this year if this keeps up:( Mr. Blue might decide to leave:(..........why?!

I have a bluebird house that I put out last spring - it was occupied by a pair of blues almost immediately. I named them Burt and Bertha. They had 3 different clutches of eggs, but only the last clutch hatched. They had 4 beautiful babies and stayed around the house all summer and fall. Over the winter, a pair of house sparrows showed up. There were battles on and off for the house, but the bluebirds seemed to always chase the sparrows away. I haven't seen the sparrows in several weeks, but I've been checking the house and so far it is empty. Nothing is nesting in it at all. I was really hoping Burt and Bertha would use it again this season. I still see them in the yard every day and sometimes they come and sit on the house and go inside here and there. But... so far, no nest. I'm so sad! Is there anything I can do to attract them back into the house? My guess is they got tired of the HOSP battle and decided to build a nest somewhere else. I know it may be a little early yet, but this time last year they had a nest with 5 eggs in it already.