CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A Charlottetown man considers himself lucky to have caught a rare glimpse of what Nature Canada calls one of the country’s coolest creatures.
Kerry Smith was sitting on the deck of his home on St. Peters Road in Charlottetown when a large hummingbird hawk moth buzzed in and hovered over his flowers.
Not only did Smith see the creature up close, it was just inches away from him and didn’t seem to mind that he was there. Smith got out his cellphone and started taking pictures.
“It was just sitting out on my deck and there it was. I would say I was only three inches away from it," Smith said.
“He didn’t care that I was there. He just kept feeding away (on the flowers). It was the first time I’ve ever seen one."
Unlike its namesake hummingbird, these moths are not birds. They have a body that is covered in olive and tan hairs and a wingspan of four to six centimetres.
“It looked like it had a lobster tail on the back of it. It was unreal. My wife punched it up on the computer and, apparently, it’s very rare to see one on the Island. We think we were pretty lucky."
Christine Noronha, a research scientist and entomologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, identified what Smith saw as a hummingbird hawk moth.
“We do find them in P.E.I. but they are not unique to P.E.I. They are also found in other locations in Canada," Noronha said.
“As an entomologist, if I saw one of these, it would make my day; my week; my month."
The moths have a long proboscis to feed with but do not drink from typical hummingbird feeders.
“The reason why they are called hummingbird moths is because, like hummingbirds, they hover over flowers while drinking nectar unlike other moths that actually sit on the flower."
Smith said the moth hovered around his flowers for about 10 to 15 minutes.
“We haven’t seen it since, not since the day I took the pictures."
