Hummingbird hawk moth

Was spotted in our garden. Been hovering around for an hour now. It’s about 3cm long with a 5cm wingspan.
Gorgeous thing to watch and quite rare for this part of the country (North West).
Has any one else seen one? Apparently sightings are up.

Be a nice thing to show children.

From what I could find on Google – thats the caterpillar that marched across the front of my garage the other week and threw a paddy when we tried to move him for his own safety!
Humongous great big green thing with a blue “horn” on it’s arse – proper fiesty.
Promptly decided to dig its way to Oz when he finally let go of the Mucky Nutz

Spotted one whilst lounging on the cliffs by Mullion Cove in Cornwall the other month, buzzing around quite happily despite the breeze.

This was just after we spotted a Peregrine Falcon perched on a rock with a kill and also managed to watch a kestrel from above hunting for ten minutes.

A pretty good day out nature wise.

What part of the country are you in hammyuk?

I found an elephant hawk moth caterpillar in the garden 3 weeks ago. Also a big brown scary horny looking thing, I couldn’t believe how large it was.

Saw lots in colorado recently feeding from the same flowers as real humming birds. Quite a strange sight having bird sized insects. Or insect sized birds . Would love to see them over here.

I found this in my back yard the other day.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/10629466_10152631879056211_71632165509856560_o.jpg

Any ideas what it is?

It’s a Pigeon Cougar.

That sounds wrong. Cougar, It’s a Pigeon.

previously on stw…

I thought that at first, but it was too long and thin? I thought maybe it was a lost homing pigeon or something, looked very different to the normal skyrats I see.

Was Dick Dastardly trying to catch it????

It looks like a Rock Pigeon, I think they come in different colours.

My Dad has created an all you can buffet for Sparrow Hawks by feeding the sparrow population with a industrial size bird feed bag from Country Wide Farmers.

He likes sparrows… I like Sparrow Hawks and sparrows 🙂

Taken today.

Sparrow Hawk 2014 – Severn Beach by SGMTB[/url], on Flickr

Sparrow Hawk 2014 – Severn Beach by SGMTB[/url], on Flickr

Sparrow Hawk 2014 – Severn Beach by SGMTB[/url], on Flickr

More Here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/58162507@N07/

I’m pretty sure one of these was sitting by my folks front door last night. Wish I’d grabbed a photo now.

Love the Sparrowhawk, good work.

Is that a Poplar Hawk moth? looks furry.

[quoteBunnyhop – Member
What part of the country are you in hammyuk?

I found an elephant hawk moth caterpillar in the garden 3 weeks ago. Also a big brown scary horny looking thing, I couldn’t believe how large it was.[/quote]

Solent – near Portsmouth

One of those hummingbird moths was making the rounds of the flowers in our back garden on Saturday evening.

Hummingbird Hawk Moth here in north Hampshire too. Not seen one for a while.

Also saw the most enormous caterpillar on a plant by the K and A in Newbury earlier in the day. Will now check it out on google!

Think it probably was a Hummingbird Hawk Moth caterpillar. Huge!

I found this fella about a month ago, chomping away on a fushia:

[/url] image[/url] by CountZero1[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar.