White-lined Sphinx Moth

Tonight’s visitor when I went out to check on the lawn sprinklers:

Not camoflouged real well up there in the bright light and all alone on the big, off-white, stucco wall.

(Image: Seek app)

The Seek app on the iPhone had no problem identifying it as a White-lined Sphinx moth. While they say these moths “are sometimes referred to as the hummingbird moth because of their bird-like size,” I can guarantee it wasn’t as big as any of the several species of hummingbirds I have in the yard. It’s a big moth, but we’ve seen bigger. (This one from April looks to have been the same species, but it was about 20% to 30% bigger.)

It’s pretty enough though. Just watch out for the mockingbirds! Their nest (now abandoned, as the three little ones fledged while we were in Winnipeg in July) is just a couple feet away.