The last day of September saw heavy rain from the late afternoon and into the evening. I was up early and driving along the Ropley Road towards the A32 junction. The rain had stopped and it was quite calm and my thoughts were on the possibility of encountering a Barn Owl on my journey south to Titchfield Haven. I passed the right hand turn for Plain Farm and my thoughts turned to the Barn Owl that was to be found here about eight years ago when I first started this blog. I came around the bend and the headlights of my car picked out a white form on one of the fence posts.
Unmistakably this was the Barn Owl I had hoped to see and it was on the patch, my first for many years and it was present in the location I had seen one or two previously. I slowed down in the hope it would stay on the fence and reversed slowly but it had flown off.
I always feel frustrated in these situations, it would be impossible to get adequate photographs in the darkness at this time of morning, but it would be nice to have a record of this bird, it being the first for several years. It was then I realised that I should have a record on my newly installed dash cam. When I got home I searched through the files on the sd card and sure enough there was a record, not the greatest Barn Owl shot I have taken, but an adequate record of the bird and I post it here.
I will definitely be spending some time around here as the afternoon become shorter in the hope that I can see it again.
While the weather on the Saturday was good the rain returned in the early hours of Sunday morning and well after day break. When I finally got up on Sunday morning there was a constant drizzle and as I looked out of the kitchen window I was amazed to see a Hummingbird Hawkmoth on the buddleia florets. I rushed upstairs to get the camera, fortunately it was still present but after two frames it was off and did not return. They are not the best photographs of the Hummingbird Hawkmoth that I have taken but they are a nice record of one in the garden
The Hummingbird Hawkmoth is a day-flying moth with a
wingspan of about 50-58mm. It has a brown, white-spotted abdomen, brown
fore-wings and orange hind-wings. It is very swift on the wing and an expert
hoverer. The wings beat so rapidly that they produce an audible hum and can be
seen only as a haze. The darting movement from one flower to the next with the
long proboscis uncoiled completes the illusion of a hummingbird.
In the British Isles they can be seen somewhere every year,
and have been recorded in every county as far north as the Orkney and Shetland
Islands. The numbers which reach our shores can vary greatly between years. The
main season runs from June to September, with smaller numbers recorded
throughout the rest of the year.
Hummingbird hawkmoth breeds regularly in the UK, and larvae
have been found in most years in July and August. The favourite food plant is
Galium (bedstraw) and Rubia (wild madder). The larva grows up to 60mm in
length. It is very colourful with green or reddish brown body with white dots
and dark, white and yellow stripes, black spiracles and a blue yellow-tipped
horn.
The late summer peak in numbers is largely the result of
emergence of locally raised moths. Even though the moths successfully breed in
the UK, they are not able to survive the winter (in mild winters, small numbers
may overwinter). Therefore, the continuing presence of this remarkable moth is
dependent on the annual influx from southern France.
The hummingbird hawkmoth prefers to fly in bright sunlight,
but it will also take to wing in dull weather, at dusk or dawn, and sometimes
even at night. It is very strongly attracted to flowers that provide a
plentiful supply of nectar, such as red valerian, honeysuckle, jasmine,
Buddleia, lilac, Escallonia, petunia and phlox. It hovers in front of a flower,
probes it repeatedly for nectar and then darts to the next flower. It has a
remarkably good memory individuals return to the same flowerbeds every day at
about the same time. (RSPB Website).
I had one earlier in the year that didn't not allow the camera to record it, always nice to be able to document this appealing moth.
