Garden Journal, September 20th 2023

A hummingbird hawkmoth visited the patio this morning. Hovering on frantic wings, yet almost perfectly stationary in front of the flowers of Salvia involucrata ‘Hadspen’. In the wild places of central America, plants like this are pollinated by actual hummingbirds. In the UK the hawkmoths are the closest hummingbird analogues that we have, a nice example of convergent evolution (where unrelated animals occupying similar niches develop similar body types or behaviours).  

The hummingbird hawkmoth takes on the name of its feathery counterpart for obvious reasons, from a distance it can be mistaken for a humming bird. It’s often seen during daylight hours, while the other hawkmoths are more nocturnally orientated, in a conventionally moth-esque manner.

In any case, the visit from this beastie was the high point of my morning, and it bears pointing out that this garden wildlife moment was enabled by a decidedly non-native plant.