Huge moth

I nipped up to the allotment yesterday to pick a few beans and courgettes for dinner. It's been raining for ever so I wasn't expecting to be long but it was dry enough (in wellies) to just wander around for a minute or two. I was looking at some salad leaves that have started to bolt when I saw a huge bug grasping onto one of the leaves. It made me jump at first because I nearly picked it!

I took it home in one of the boxes I use for fruit, clear plastic with air holes, the leaves came with it in case it wanted them to eat. The boys have finished school for the summer so they were around and the older one promptly identified my moth as a privet hawk moth. I was dead impressed with his knowledge, he had a friend with him who thought he was blagging so we Googled it and lo and behold! Absolutely correct - a privet hawk moth it is!

When J came home from work we spent some time taking bug portraits and let it walk about on our hands. It weed copiously all over the kitchen table when it came out of the box! You wouldn't think moths could hold that much liquid! Finally I took it out into the garden and let it climb onto a tree to finish sleeping. I'm hoping that as dusk fell it will have woken fully to fly free.