14 Aug 2017

14 Aug 17 - Bedstraw Hawk Moth

I'm currently sorting out a backlog of photos that have been clogging up my laptop for too long. This will be the first of a few Posts that should have appeared sooner, if I had had the time. Autumn 17 was a busy period in Dorset with a number of interesting Birds in the county. However, it was also a good autumn for Moths & the first was a Bedstraw Hawk Moth that Weymouth Birder Paul Harris caught in his garden. Paul regularly tweets about good Moths that he catches & is good enough to allow other people to twitch them, before they are released. I had seen a tweet from Paul about a Bedstraw Hawk Moth & it was too good an opportunity to miss as an after work twitch.
Bedstraw Hawk Moth: It was a pity the stone wasn't big enough, but I arrived while Paul was having a family dinner as his brother & his wife were staying. He was a gent to allow me time for some quick photos
This is a rare Moth in Dorset & the excellent Dorset Moths web site states there are only 36 records recorded across a dozen sites since the first record in 1989. Well worth making the effort to go & see one.