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Bird Watchers

Not sure this would be a good thing if I had a garden, but I have seen 3 or 4 of these guys flying around at dusk everyday. I first thought they were hummingbirds. Come to find out they are hummingbird moths. Best pic I could get with my phone of these fast little guys.
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TexasTraveler said:
Not sure this would be a good thing if I had a garden, but I have seen 3 or 4 of these guys flying around at dusk everyday. I first thought they were hummingbirds. Come to find out they are hummingbird moths. Best pic I could get with my phone of these fast little guys.
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Those things are wild looking. I’ve only seen a few of them in my lifetime.
 
bfreebern said:
Damn George, love your pictures. I had photography in HS and loved it. Have dabbled here and there since, but nothing too serious. Guess I need to put out some feeders and see what we get. Probably just boring sparrows, robins and grackles. Certainly nothing like your bird sanctuary 😂
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What’s so funny - my wife put out one feeder a few years ago and we got a bunch of sparrows, robins and gackles. Out of the blue one day a red tanager showed up - we’ve never seen it before or after. I bought a finch sock (my wife thought I’d lost it) and within a week it was loaded with American Goldfinches. We’ve refined what we put out there, but it’s amazing to see what shows up. The Orioles showed up for the first time last year so we put jelly out. There back again this year! The European Goldfinch first showed up in March and now they’re here every day. I have to say - it’s fun to see a new bird we’ve never seen before. And they just keep coming.

I guess my point is - we never know what’s out there until we throw some food up to see who shows! 😁
 
TexasTraveler said:
Not sure this would be a good thing if I had a garden, but I have seen 3 or 4 of these guys flying around at dusk everyday. I first thought they were hummingbirds. Come to find out they are hummingbird moths. Best pic I could get with my phone of these fast little guys.
View attachment 55070
Click to expand...
A couple of years ago we had those flying around our butterfly bushes. I could never get a decent picture of them, but they are pretty cool looking!
 
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The female Oriole showed up for the first time today. We’re hoping they’ll settle in to our “bed and breakfast” (nice trees and a good, clean breakfast). Seems they’re both interested (been around quite a bit today), but I thought I heard the female expressing concerns about their kids and car traffic by the house as well as sone thoughts about the four legged creatures walking the two legged ones…. 🤣
 
TexasTraveler said:
Not sure this would be a good thing if I had a garden, but I have seen 3 or 4 of these guys flying around at dusk everyday. I first thought they were hummingbirds. Come to find out they are hummingbird moths. Best pic I could get with my phone of these fast little guys.
View attachment 55070
Click to expand...

Those are what those nasty looking green tomato worms turn into. There is actually a tobacco hornworm, interestingly enough.

Probably other big worms make similar moths, I had some about 2/3 their size hanging out on the blooms of my currant bushes.
 
ChuckJr said:
Those are what those nasty looking green tomato worms turn into. There is actually a tobacco hornworm, interestingly enough.

Probably other big worms make similar moths, I had some about 2/3 their size hanging out on the blooms of my currant bushes.
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A common gardener's mistake - but the tomato hornworm turns into the five spotted hawk moth.

Although the hummingbird moth caterpillar is also green with a horn , there are some distinct differences between the hummingbird moth caterpillar vs the tomato hornworm : black dots along the side vs. white stripes with black dots , black on feet / black belly vs green feet/green belly.

I have gone to war with my nemesis the tomato hornworm.
 
MilesMingusMonk said:
I have gone to war with my nemesis the tomato hornworm.
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I hate those things and they honestly creep me out, especially when I miss one or two when they’re small and find them when they’re huge. They can sure take a tomato or pepper plant, down to the branches, in a short time.
 
bfreebern said:
I hate those things and they honestly creep me out, especially when I miss one or two when they’re small and find them when they’re huge. They can sure take a tomato or pepper plant, down to the branches, in a short time.
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Yeah - I am not a fan. They can devastate anything in the nightshade family ( tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, tobacco) , but tomato plants are their favorite cuisine. Leaf damage and poop are the early signs before the hornworms are large enough to be easily noticed, since they are so well camouflaged and tend to hide on the underside of leaves.

I did a fully screened in garden that had a mating pair of Australian Bearded Dragons as garden residents, and they did a great job of keeping the tomato hornworms at bay , but they could not differentiate between my beneficial insects ( praying mantis, lacewings) and the undesirable tomato hornworms.
 
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