The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Talk about getting frustrated...

Yesterday I'm almost sure that I saw an Hummingbird Hawk Moth, it was alongside the flowers of the buddleah and about 17.30, only got a quick glimse of it.

This morning while pruning the roses a moth landed on my trousers it stopped there a good 15 minutes, it had a wingspan of about 40mm and was brownish in colour.

This evening at 21.30 about nine moths all looked to be the same were on the flowers of the buddleah, these were about 40 mm wingspan and had a dark spot on each wing to the front of it, and underneath they looked to be a light colour.

I don't expect anyone to identify those above from my sparse ID.

How do I ID them when it is almost dark????

Any advice will help will be appreciated.



PS: I have several books on moths but they don't seem to help!!!!!

Max

Moth can be very frustrating and daunting when you start looking at them!

However, a Hummingbird Hawk Moth is unmistakable, and when you see one, there is no mistaking!

At the moment there are loads of Silver-Y about, I can't be sure this is what you saw, but I have seen loads in my garden over the last week? Silver-Y often fly during the day, and are often seen on buddleah?

All the best

Andrew

Hi Max, the most abundant moths in my garden during the day and night are Silver Y, as you say you had 9 on the buddlea I suspect thats what youll find they are.

Trev

Hi Max.
I saw my first hummingbird hawk moth about 2 weeks ago near Santon wood, it was feeding on some purple flowers and it left them at one time and tried to feed on my socks which had purple checks on them, very amusing i thought, you cannot see their wings, they are beating so fast they are just a blur.
Check out the website www.ukmoths.org.uk, just type in whatever moth you want and you will see photos of them. Colin.

Thanks to all who replied.

Sorry late getting back, but my health isn't too good.

Just been in garden and that moth is there again, this time it landed within a foot of me, on the buddleah. It has a white mark on each top wing and underneath is a creamy/off white color, with a wingspan of about 35 - 40 mm.

Cheers

If you look closely at the mark on its wing , its in the shape of a Y , hence the name Silver Y.


Trev

I agree, there are more Silver Y's in my garden at the moment, than I have ever seen before - I have attached a picture below,

Link to Silver Y page on UKMoths is http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=1134

On Monday morning when I opened dining room window a dead moth was there, on examining it it was a Silver Y, so you were all correct. When they are flying it isn't easy to ID them.

Another question:

Can you recommend a pocket sized field guide of British Moths?

And when I'm well enough I'd like to go out "mothing" [is that a real word] with an expert, any recommendations?

Thanks.

Hope your health improves. Can I suggest you contact Toby Ludlow from Butterfly Conservation who regularly organizes Moth Events at Chambers Farm Woodand elsewhere. Alternatively, trawl through the moth section and contact the contributors who use mv lamps etc by private message to see if they can assist.

Thanks for that Stuart.

In garden this afternoon at last saw a Silver Y at rest, on a leaf of the pear tree, they certainly look different than when flying or dead.