Where have all the butterflies gone?

Six or seven years ago, we decided to create a garden to attract butterflies.  It's easy to do, and there are two key ingredients:

1. Bright red, yellow and orange flowers, and
2. The specific plants that caterpillars eat.

Not all, but many butterfly caterpillars will eat only one plant, so, if you have that plant, it will attract females to lay their eggs...and if you attract females... Some examples:

• Monarchs caterpillars eat Milkweed
• Gulf Fritillary caterpillars eat Passion Flower Vine
• Anise Swallowtail caterpillars eat Fennel

So we planted the plants and the butterflies came.  Within a couple years we saw:

1. Monarch
2. Gulf Fritillary
3. Cabbage White
4. Cloudless Sulphur
5. Skipper
6. West Coast Lady
7. Red Admiral
8. Mourning Cloak
9. Anise Swallowtail
10. Gray Hairstreak
11. Funereal Duskywing
12. Probably Marine Blue (but they don't sit still enough to get a good look)
13. And a few others I couldn't identify. 

And not only butterflies arrived.  On a hot summer day, our back yard was hopping.  Birds, bees, dragonflies, hummingbirds and butterflies were all engaged in breeding, eating and fighting for territory.  Birds would swoop down from the fence to grab a Skipper for lunch.  Sometimes they ate, but when they missed, the Skipper would chase the bird away.  (Skippers are one of the smallest butterflies, but they don't lack for courage.)


There would be dozens of butterflies in the garden throughout the day and they often fought for territory.  I once saw two Mourning Cloaks being chased by two Gulf Fritillaries being chased by two skippers.  Like I said, it was hopping.


So, why am I writing this?  Well, for the past few years, there have been fewer and fewer butterflies in our garden.  Both in quantity and species.  This year I've been happy to see 3 or 4 at a time, and I've only seen 5 or 6 different species.


And why is this happening?   I wish I knew. Our summers have been cooler so that may be a contributing factor, but there could be many other issues involved.


For now, I'm adding more plants to attract butterflies and keeping my fingers crossed.


Here are some pictures we took of the butterflies listed above (in order).