20 January 2008

Things I like about summer, II

Hummingbird moths in the geraniums on the front deck.



The first time I saw a hummingbird moth (AKA a sphinx moth) was the summer of 2004. That's when I took this video, which is not great but will give you an idea of what it was like. Here's a site with a lot of pictures.

I thought I was seeing the smallest hummingbird I had ever seen, and we had seen a lot of them in California over the years. I even asked my neighbors if there were hummingbirds, called colibris in French, in the Loire Valley. They said no.

I did some quick searching and found out that hummingbirds live only in the Americas. But these hummingbird moths seem to have settled into the same niche in Europe. We only see them when the weather is very warm.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you! And again thank you!
    Toronto: -10...wind chill -22... snow squalls... Authorities busy getting street people in shelters (want it or not).
    I looked at the pictures, watched the hummingbird many times.
    Spring will come. Yes! Yes! Yes!
    Till then, I have a hummingbird in my librairie-à-la-Montaigne.

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  2. The hummingbird moths are also called sphinx moths in the US. I love the photos from the link that you sent! I'm going to look for some around here. We have luna moths which are my very favorites.

    It's cold here in 'Bama, Claudia and we still have snow patches here and there.

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