Sometimes when you take your camera out with you at night--just on a whim--you are rewarded with something special like this:
This is a hummingbird hawk-moth. I got to see one prancing about last week while sitting on the side of the road waiting for a fireworks show to begin. I was delighted with it. They are clever little things that will fool you but good into thinking you're looking at a little hummer buzzing around.
But you're not.
The little guy above was just hanging around my neighborhood tonight, and since I happened to be wandering around outside, with my camera tucked into my pocket, and remembering that I had said camera on me, I snapped a random shot into the darkness and just...got...lucky.
It was sooooooo much better than having a sun spider crawl up my shorts.
6 comments:
Yes, Toxi-Moron, my hand puppet, says that the "pretty" ones aren't a problem. Especially if they mind their own business! And we "adults" know they are night-time pollinators - like bats! With our bees collapsing we need all these creatures more than ever. Congrats on the wonderful photo!
What über super duper cool critters. I first encountered one in Belize, so keep an eye out when next you're there!
Thank you both! I had forgotten two things, and you reminded me of them:
1) there's that bee problem. afanny, any word on why the little needle-assed things are disappearing? the report i heard months ago suggested that it would be the end of mankind if they disappeared altogether.
b) i need to go back to belize. and *now* i have a reason--research!! woo hoo!
p.s. to afanny: toxi-moron!! love it! you goose, you...
I don't think they know for sure what's going on with the bees. I hear that the organic hives are not affected, but that may be a crock. There are lots of theories - cell phones, pesticides, schadenfreud - but nothing definitive yet.
Like much natural phenomenon, no one really knows. Bee keepers will tell you that historically, the little critters tend to do this every hundred years or so for no apparent reason. But Humans muck about an awful lot in not-so-good-ways, so of course I'm not counting out some kind of modern interference on our part.
Wicked, you've been tagged. See my blog.
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