Before this epic summer the hottest summer I remember was the summer of 1976. That summer is often referred to as the year of the ladybird as swarms of ladybirds infested towns and cities across the UK, with many people even reporting being bitten by them.
I shall remember this year as the year of the hummingbird hawk-moth. Before this year I can only remember a few sightings of them in the UK, but this year they have almost been a common occurrence.
Recently “The Times” newspaper reported :
“Big enough to be mistaken for a bird, the moths brought by warm air from the south have been seen everywhere from the Channel Islands to Scotland”.
In the garden of the cottage where we are staying in Devon there is a buddleia which, as well as attracting numerous butterflies, has attracted several hummingbird hawk-moths.
They are not easy to photograph as their wings beats at 80 times per second.
And some of the butterflies:
I couldn’t resist a couple more hummingbird hawk-moths from later in the day:
The Times reports:
“Traditionally, the peak time for hummingbird hawk-moth sightings in Britain is August and September, so we’re only just coming into the peak now. We could end up with a lot more sightings before the summer is out.”
… and a lot more photographs!
Comments
11 responses to “16th August 2026 – Southleigh, East Devon”
Beautiful photos. And I’m very jealous that you’ve seen so many hummingbird hawkmothd … I’ve only ever seen them in the south of France, never in the UK. Mind you, it’s been so dry in Norfolk, I doubt they could find any flowers to eat from!!
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Thank you. There might still be time when term starts – but as the French say “il ne faut pas parler de ce qui fâche”
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Hey!! I still have two whole weeks left … let’s not get ahead of ourselves!
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Very pretty. I don’t usually take photos of butterflies but I really enjoy your pictures
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Many thanks
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Hi Martin, on first glance I thought the moths were hummingbirds. What lovely shots you got. I’ve never seen these and they are amazing.
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Thanks, Robbie. We are lucky to be seeing them in significant numbers this year. They seem quite exotic.
Martin Tayler
Martin’s bird & nature blog: http://martinsbirdblog.com ________________________________
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May I feature a few of your moth photographs for my photography challenge Creatures that fly on 4 September. I’ll credit you and provide the link to your blog and post.
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Of course. Thank you.
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Thank you 🤗🙏
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[…] The selection of photographs below of the hummingbird hawk-moth are from this post: https://martinsbirdblog.com/2026/08/16/16th-august-2026-southleigh-east-devon/ […]
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