This week was forecast to bring steady rain. In fact it only arrived in bucket loads over the past couple of days and in the meanwhile the sun got out often enough for continued appearances by red admiral, peacock, small tortoiseshell, comma, (mainly) large and small whites. A couple more queen bumblebees turned up, this time buff-tailed, and the pellucid fly made another appearance.
Last Saturday I glimpsed a large moth joining the diners on the buddleia. It appeared briefly for the next couple of days and looked very much like a humming bird hawk-moth. When I got the camera out the last day, it was nectaring on the wing and not settling on the flowers, so attempted photos were not much helpful. However it was possible to be confident of the identification on the basis of the orangey-brown wing colour and body shape alone.
In the end I attempted a video, which also captured one of the whites by chance:
I think I read somewhere that hummingbird hawk-moths have been commoner than usual this year.
It looks like we may have drier weather again soon, so hopefully there will be a few more butterflies and bees to brighten up the day.
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