Blue Sky On Mars

I found a bunch of these flying around my mother’s hanging flower’s in France during the summer:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwight/sets/72157594255087845/

I saw one for the first time today in Hastings, England. Fantastic!

I have been in gardening for 60 years and have never heard of this insect until today when I was wathching one feeding on my petunias. I was so fascinated I watch it until it flew away, and was further amazed be the speed and direct line of flight it took. By the way I live in Southport, Merseyside. in the north west of england.

I have become facinated by these moths this year and am hoping to breed them after getting four eggs from the wild. Check out all the photoes and story in the Butterfly and Moth thread on the Bird Forum web site. I look forward to your contributions.

I SAW ONE YESTERDAY 13/09/06 IN KENSINGTON LIVERPOOL. FEEDING ON A BUDDLEA

I saw one of these in my mums garden feeding on her lovelyflowers we were all fascinated by it and watched it till it flew away. This was on sun 17th sept, and we live in Peterhead (the most north easterly point of Scotland, just north of Aberdeen)

I have just been photographing a noisy, plump moth on my petunias- a hummingbird hawkmoth! I live noth of Carlisle 13 miles from the scottish border- 25 sept

i have seen several of these in my garden, did not know what they were until i saw them in , practical photography. I watched them for ages until they flew away. 26/9/06

Hi I breed all kinds of hawkmoth but never the hummingbird if anyone knows were to get some give me a bell. oldbarn@obr.demon.co.uk.

One kept visiting me this Summer. First time I’ve ever seen one. Seemed to go for Buddlea and another purple flower I’ve got. Hovers just like a hummingbird, and such a big body! Probiscus was really long. Absolutely fascinating to watch. I got really close up to it and it didn’t seem to mind!
Hope he visits me next year! Oxfordshire.

I saw them ALL OVER Cabo San Lucas Mexico.

January 10th, ‘07 walking in a garden in Cabos, BCS, Mexico, I saw something so much like a hummingbird….visiting all the trumpet flowers. It was slow and had unusual antennas: odd to be the bird I’m familiar with. It will fool those who don’t expect a “moth” to be so focused on flowers, have such a huge body, and be way too slow to accelerate.

i saw 1 today, thought the little f#%er was a tiny hummingbird to!!!! then i googled it and found it was a moth!! rude!!! moths suck ass!!

I just saw one of those hummingbird hawkmoths last night feeding on my next door neighbors flowers. I live in Morgan Hill, California (just north of San Jose) and I have been doing some research on the internet on these critters since I sighted him and I can’t figure out how the little guy came to be in Morgan Hill. At first I thought it was just a hummingbird, but when I saw the antennas I was puzzled. I was very close to him for about 6 minutes and he was not bothered by my close proximity at all.

We’ve been seeing these little critters/insects here in Ontario, Canada for the past 5-7 years now. Amazing things. They really seem to like our lilacs. Tried to get some pictures this evening, but they are just too fast. Maybe I’ll have better luck next time.

Just saw one this morning in Wickford, Rhode Island. I did get a good picture too. The first thing that we noticed was that it didn’t mind having us very near at all. I’ve never seen anything like this! I want to know how it got to Rhode Island.

I was out gardening this afternoon and spotted one of these little guys. Would have sworn it was the smallest hummingbird I’d ever seen but of course I looked it up in my ‘birds of north america’ book and couldn’t find it. Imagine that! Got searching on the internet and found out all about them. Have never seen one in this area - Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada

I live in Northern Virginia (Gainesville) approximately 40 miles west of Washington DC. I noticed this little creature feeding on a flowering plant in my mulchbed at about 10:45 pm. We had rain off and on throughout the evening and a cool front moved into the area. I was baffled that this “thing” was out in the cool, damp of night. I tried to snap a picture with my cell phone camera to no avail! The little critter appeared to be a cross between a hummingbird and a flying insects of sorts. It didn’t seem to be troubled by my being in such close proximity. Based on my reasearch (which consists of only 3 web sites I’ve visited in the past hour), they seems to be pretty rare. How exciting to observe this interesting little creature!

I live in the South of Tenerife and have lived in the same apartment for 2 years. I have a beautiful purple flowering plant (unfortunately I do not have a name for it) covering a wall on our balcony and for the first time 3 weeks ago I discovered these huge caterpillars their sheer size shocked me I had no idea what they were. There were some brown/grey ones and a couple of green ones which turned turquoise when touched. I sent the photos to a friend in Scotland UK who called into the Botanical Gardens and spoke to someone who specialises in moths and butterflies. Her reply was that they were going to turn into hummingbird-hawkmoths and iridescent blue butterfies. At the moment they are still in the caterpillar stage measuring 4 inches long and as thick as my thumb. I only hope I get to see the beautiful creatures they turn into. I have lived in Tenerife for 6 years and never seen anything like it before. Some locals have been here as long as 20 years and never seen them.

I live in Columbia County in upstate New York, southeast of Albany. I was weeding my garden and saw one of these this morning feeding on my Bee Balm and at first thought it was a very strange bee, then got closer and thought it was a very very tiny hummingbird. I went online to see if I could find it and came up with these hummingbird hawkmoths, which I had never heard of. The one I saw had a tan-ish upper back body, a reddish-brown lower back body, 2 stubby black tail feathers (?) and a cream colored underbody. I got within 6-12 inches of it and it didn’t seem to mind. Wow!

I just saw one for the first time today in back yard in Columbus, Ohio feeding around my wife’s flowers. I could not tell what is was so I had to look it up and it lead me to this site. It seems like there is a lot more in Europe. This site is the first I have seen that talks about them being in the USA.

I, too, did not know what they were. I thought they were little hummingbirds and my husband thought they were moths. It seems we were both right! I live in Fort Worth, Texas, and enjoyed watching them for an hour. They like our Zinnias and Pintas, but love our Lantanas. It has been interesting reading about all of these sightings!