Is it a bird...?
I am sure you have all seen something of the painted lady invasion which started on May 25. With hundreds of thousands of these adventurous butterflies swarming north-west across the county.
Can we now expect another invasion of immigrants from as far south as Africa?
I am thinking of that speedy little moth which so looks like a humming bird, and which takes that name. Here is a photograph of one, taken by Brian Henham of Chichester. I am anticipating the arrival of this extraordinary insect because every year many people see them in their gardens, nectaring on garden plants. They cannot believe that the moth is actually an insect and not a tiny bird. It was born a moth, but always wanted to have feathers it always seems to be in my less serious moments.
So, there you are, sitting in your garden with a cup of tea and your favourite crossword, magazine, or, in the case of children, Nintendo, and all at once you hear a deep and throbbing hum. There is nothing else like it. Unless Sir Harrington Birtwistle has managed to produce that dark and velvet sound experience on a contraeuphonium in one of his compositions for brass bands. RAF Chinook helicopters which fly very low on moonlit and starry nights around my home are deep but not as deep as the mysterious little low-flying moth from so far away.
I love anything that flies: plane, bird or moth. A peregrine high over this house on sky-piercing quests for blood; a lazy meadow brown flopping through the long grass on a summer afternoon, an airliner trailing silver lines, its belly filled with human traffic to Africa.
None is so memorable as that blurred glimpse of shadow that startles you from your reverie in the garden on a summer's day.
You need not a large garden. A sliver of earth and patch of grass, and the sweet smell from any flower, even one still in its pot from the nursery on Mother's Sunday will suffice. I have seen hummingbird hawkmoths feeding from all sorts of shrubs and flowerbed blossoms.
In this garden, it is true, they come mainly to the buddleia. But they will enjoy the tobacco plant as well. If you have never seen or heard of this strange visitor, for it will soon be on its way, you will be baffled, and write an e-mail to the paper, in the same way that persons once wrote letters to The Times to report 'the smallest bird in Britain'.
So here is advanced warning of what to expect. I only hope that I am right in predicting the invasion. There are of course many other hawkmoths which might come in to your garden, and most are much bigger. The death's-head for example, which is the biggest moth in Britain with a human skull device on the back of its head, a miniature Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator look-alike. This moth squeals when alarmed, like an enraged elephant. But it's harmless, and eats potatoes.
Other large hawkmoths breeding in Britain have caterpillars as large as cigars. These might be seen crawling rapidly across your garden looking for a safe place to pupate. Some eat privet, some eat wild covolvulous, some eat poplar leaves. They are all harmless. They are more thrilling than Terminator, helicopter and even dear old Sir Harrington Birtwistle, strange though his sounds are.
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Weather for Chichester
Monday 13 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 3 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: North west
