What is this?

[Fenman]

Spotted feeding nectar from Buddelia plant, it is a large moth-like flying insect with long proboscis, camouflage-like furry tail, antennae. Very fast wing speed but silent.
I have never seen anything like this before.

John

[Hedera]

Your description fits a Hummingbird hawk moth. There are a good few around at the moment.

[aeshna5]

Agree with Hedera it does sound like a HHM.

[Fenman]

Yes, a hummingbird would be a very good description, I have some photo's but because I am not that IT literate I cannot work out how to add them to the post. I put them in the image library and got stuck from there on.

Regards
John

[Jason Green]

Afternoon John, and welcome to WAB!

Here they are:



Well done on getting as far as you did! To add each one to your posts, copy the line of text in the box proceeding 'Linked Thumbnail' positioned below your image's description.

Great photos.

Take care,

Jason

[aeshna5]

Good to see it was one- they really are special insects. Basically migrants, though a few occasionally over winter successfully in the south in mild winters.

[Fenman]

I am not in the South but in North Cambridgeshire Fens, I do get a lot of wildlife, which is encouraged.
At present I have a a pair of moorhens with 4 young living in the reeds to one of my ponds of which hundreds of frog-letts and toad-lets have just migrated, a wood pigeon is currently nesting and a collared dove is also nesting.

Blue tits and robins have now flown unfortunately a few of their young were lost to magpies and crows.

I used to have water voles in the drainage dyke to the rear of my land but these left after being disturbed by new neighbours from London cutting down many trees and hedges (with nesting birds) and partially filling the dyke with a digger, demolishing an outbuilding where barn owls lived for as long as I can remember. All this was despite me pointing out the damage that was being done to the wildlife in the area. Fortunately, my little piece of land is a haven and my geese don't seem to mind sharing it at all.