Bugging You From San Juan Island

I love my catmint!  The deer don’t like it, but pollinators absolutely DO!  Every year, I wait in anticipation to see what visits the tiny purple-indigo flowers.  I’ve had everything from hummingbirds to bumblebees, moths, and butterflies.  Today, I took two short clips of the Pale Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon) visiting the blooms.  There have been as many as seven or eight fluttering about at a time.

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I keep hoping to see my very favorite of the pollinators visiting the catmint, but have to make a point of going around dusk.  It’s been a few years, but the catmint is also a favorite of the elusive hummingbird moth (Hemaris diffinis).  Here is one I photographed in June of 2016.   Also known as the Snowberry Clearwing moth, these fuzzy, large-bodied but nimble fliers are also called Bumblebee or Hawk moths.