Fair copper

I completed my regular hawk moth tally for the year yesterday when I looked up from weeding and saw a Hummingbird Hawk moth nectaring on the small, bright blue flowers of a ceratostigma in the nearby flowerbed. I zoomed in to get the iPad Mini and the moth was still hovering busily about when I got back. But not for long. As I fiddled in my usual inept way with the passcode and finding the camera option, it decided that it had had enough of our garden and whirred off before I could get a snap.

Update:  I should have added that my regular hawks are, in order of frequency: Poplar, Elephant, Eyed, Privet, Pine, Small Elephant, Lime and Hummingbird. I've seen Convolvulus in Cornwall and on photos taken by a neighbour's daughter in Tackley, just up the road from here. And also, memorably, Death's Head in Kirtlington, a couple of miles way.

I thought that it had come back half-an-hour later, but the nectar-seeker this time was this lovely Small Copper butterfly, above.  I didn't notice at the time but as you can see in the photo, it had competition for a drink from a small hoverfly.  Rain all day today and I won't be putting the trap out tonight. But more, I hope, before long.