Today, it’s a special post of a rather remarkable recent sighting of an amazing Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe), a species of hawk moth, feeding on Wild Bergamot (a.k.a. Bee Balm)(Monarda fistulosa) at Asbury Woods in Millcreek Twp, PA (“Since 1800”).
All these shots were at 500mm under cloudy conditions, i.e., not the best conditions. Hawk moths (like this Hummingbird Clearwing) beat their wings > 80 times/second, faster than some hummingbird birds. They’re also rather fast moving generally. Most of these photographs were taken with a shutter speed of 1/4000 second*, to capture motion and reduce wing blurriness.
[*Photo Editor’s note: Nikon D850 = an actual shutter, as opposed to equivalent exposure times in a mirrorless digital camera like the Nikon Z8 or Z9. (Most of the photos on BirdingPI.com are taken with a Z8 or Z9.)]
Amazing photos. The wings are actually -see-through’….
Thank you, Team Leader, for getting such amazing shots! Imagine shooting at 1/4000 second!
And to think this little guy can beat it’s wings 80 times/second. Who can even imagine that kind of speed!
Even at 1/4000 sec the wings are still somewhat blurry in some of the shots! It’s a real fast mover. And the wings really are see-through – rather amazing, actually. (Of course it’s common on things like dragonflies, but less so, it seems, on butterflies/moths.)
Normally better to shoot insects w/ a 100mm (or 50mm or whatever) macro lens, but in this instance the 500mm worked out fine because the subject in question wasn’t sitting still long.