![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/white-lined-sphinx-moth-9747-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"white-lined-sphinx-moth-9747-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n1\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender<\/em><\/p>\n I’ve been photographing Swainson’s Hawks for over ten years now but it was only three summers ago that I “discovered” the sphinx moth. Getting flight shots of insects had always\u00a0seemed like\u00a0a pipe dream to me because of the inherent difficulties of doing so with a long lens. But because of the physical and behavioral similarities these large insects\u00a0share with\u00a0hummingbirds (they’re also called “hummingbird moths” and\u00a0for good reason)\u00a0I found them to be a challenging but obtainable quarry.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender<\/em><\/p>\n They were feeding on nectar of the showy blooms of Rocky Mountain Bee Plant on Antelope Island. They’d flit from flower cluster\u00a0to flower cluster looking for individual flowers to\u00a0dip their\u00a0ridiculously long proboscis into so they could\u00a0suck up the nutritious nectar.<\/p>\n They\u00a0were very difficult to photograph in flight. I had a much\u00a0higher percentage of both\u00a0blurry images and “air shots” (where the moth had already left the frame when I clicked the shutter) than I typically do with any species of bird but occasionally I’d get lucky. And when I did I\u00a0often loved the\u00a0photos – how can you go wrong with beautiful flowers in the setting and an interesting and unique subject? Among other things I love their eyes!<\/p>\n But until recently I had no\u00a0inkling of the strong ecological link between sphinx moths and migrating Swainson’s Hawks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS\u00a0USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Swainson’s Hawks winter in Argentina and migrate to North America for the breeding season\u00a0and something<\/em> has to fuel that incredible journey. It turns out that sphinx moth caterpillars are often a huge part of their diet during the trip.<\/p>\n No doubt readers have heard of the “superbloom” of wildflowers this spring\u00a0in southern California after years of extended drought followed by a wet winter and spring. In places like\u00a0Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in eastern San Diego County there’s been a corresponding\u00a0explosion of sphinx moths which many, many thousands of Swainson’s Hawks are taking advantage of as a food source to fuel their trip further north as far as Canada.<\/p>\n On some single\u00a0days this spring\u00a0as many as 1,673 Swainson’s Hawks using Anza-Borrego as a staging area during migration\u00a0have been tallied by human hawk counters and they’re feeding primarily on the super-abundant sphinx moth caterpillars. Flower lovers, photographers and birders flocked to the\u00a0area to witness the spectacle and I think that’s a good thing (as long as I don’t have to join the crowds)\u00a0because it just inspires more interest in nature.<\/p>\n I’ve mentioned previously that so far this has been a banner year for migrating Swainson’s Hawks in my area and I’m directly in their path as they migrate north from southern California. I love the fact that sphinx moths have contributed significantly to the success of the\u00a0hawks I’m seeing.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The web of life is indeed intertwined – in this case with two of my favorite photographic subjects.<\/p>\n\n
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