Summer Kaleidoscope of colour

Monday 23rd September 2013

This summer has been the kind we remember from our childhood with long warm sunny days.
On the Island September and October can still be warm and dry for a lot of the time due to our maritime climate.
It has been an amazing year to spot butterflies and moths there has been clouds of speckled woods along the hedgerows and seen high numbers of the usual species than last year. The Buddleia in the garden was full of Commas, tortoiseshells and painted ladies and lived up to the name Butterfly bush.
Seen many Jersey Tiger moths a day flying colourful large moth outside wings are black and white but in flight you get a flash of bright orange. Numbers on the Island are definitely on the increase.

Occasionally during the summer we see humming bird hawk moths which as name suggests resemble tiny hummingbirds they love feeding on red Valerian are extremely active and not the least shy of being around humans you can get very close to them. They are mostly light brown with black and white markings on the rear.
Macroglossum Stellatarum

Found a link to a youtube clip where someone has filmed a hummingbird moth on the Island.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whOHbUdhqoU
Wikipedia page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macroglossum_stellatarum