Imitators and the Real Deal

I haven’t seen very many hummingbirds this year. Having only been here one season, it is entirely possible that the two or three I have seen plus the couple I have heard but not seen are typical in the Westfield area but I know that in Pilot Mountain only ten miles away they are a much more common occurrence. I can’t stay overly disappointed though. Just yesterday buzzing around in the Verbena I spotted not one but two Hummingbird Clearwing moths. One of a fairly large number of species of moths in the Sphingidae family, this particular species looks an awful lot like the Ruby-throated Hummingbird which is our only regularly occurring hummingbird in the piedmont of North Carolina. At a quick glance, you might be fooled entirely, but upon closer inspection you will notice that the proboscis curls up when not in use plundering nectar and the rapidly beating wings are not feathered at all but rather cleverly disguised moth wings. I guess if you’re really paying attention the antennae are a dead giveaway, but why make it that easy?

Later that same day as I was harvesting calendula flowers, I noticed that the yellow and orange flowers were abuzz with insects. Having had a recent encounter of the painful kind with another buzzing insect, the bald-faced hornet ( which, it turns out, isn’t a hornet at all but rather a yellow-jacket ), I was a little wary at first. However, upon further investigation from a relatively safe distance I was pleased to discover that the pollen on these lovely flowers was being harvested by half a dozen or more species of native bees. Generally speaking, the native bees are not aggressive and since most are solitary, they are unlikely to sting as they don’t have a hive to protect. This is a group of highly beneficial insects who do much of the pollinating work for wildflowers, “weeds” and grasses in our pastures and forest edges. I can attest that these particular species were pretty chill as I had to remove more than a couple from the newly cut flower heads before laying them out to dry. They crawled around on my hand happily until I encouraged them to fly off to the next available flower.

It turns out that there is always something interesting to see and learn about when you take a minute to look around here at Luna’s Trail. Drop by for a visit sometime and we’ll see what we can find.