Having lived at Ravendale House, with a large garden, for 15 years, I think it would be fair to say the most unusual creatures we saw in all that time were a few Shield Bugs (Palomena prasina) and a Lousy Watchman (Geotrupes stercorarius ). The latter giving me quite a scare when I bumped into it whilst weeding. We’ve only been here 2 weeks, and I can already trump both of those sightings.

There I was the other morning, sat enjoying some Autumn sunshine in a small square of concrete outside the cottage, surrounded by pots of geraniums (pelargonium) when I saw something I have never, ever seen before.

At the time I had no idea what it was, but it was fascinating to watch, and it stayed for quite a few minutes so I got a good, close look at it.

Later, a bit of ‘Googling’ soon revealed that it was a Humming Bird Hawk Moth (Macroglossum Stellatarum) and well named it is too

It was absolutely fascinating and beautiful. Here are a few pictures I discovered on the Internet.

GERMANY WEATHER

Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that beautiful?

Hummingbird Hawk Moth1

Isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t that awesome?

Hummingbird HawkMoth2

How cool is that?