Beavertail State Park, RI - Hummingbird Clearwing Moth, 8/13/23

     This weekend my wife and I ventured to Rhode Island to assist our daughter and her fiancé move from one apartment to another.  After a day and a half of traveling and moving boxes and furniture, I was given a day off to go out and explore on my own.  All the eBird hotspots in my daughter’s new home county were better than a half hour drive from her new apartment.  The Rhode Island birding GroupMe  alerts, which had been pinging virtually everyday for weeks, were silent since I left for th Ocean state.  So I chose to go to Beavertail State Park in nearby Jamestown, a place I visited my last time in the state. 
Beavertail Lighthouse.  © S. Weiss
A sign posted near the lighthouse claims this to be the third oldest lighthouse in the United States.  The shape of the island where the lighthouse is located is how it got its name.

Beavertail SP is in Jamestown, on Conanicut Island, surrounded by Narragansett Bay,  between the iconic New England towns of Narragansett and Newport.   Beavertail Lighthouse sits at the southern tip of the island and park.  The park offers a couple partially wooded trails to walk, and majestic panoramic views of the bay and Rhode Island Sound.  There are no beaches, but rocky cliffs and shoreline.  There are many precarious cutouts for fishermen, sunbathers and adventurers to make their way to the lower rocks.  Today there was nothing more for me to see at the water’s edge than what I was able to see from the higher, more level ground.
One of the many views of Narragansett Bay from Beavertail State Park.  © S. Weiss

I had hoped to pick out a stray seabird, such as a shearwater or jaeger, but all I could spot were gulls, cormorants, a common tern and a white-winged scoter.  I walked for about a mile along one of the trails and only checked off a couple other expected birds like goldfinches, towhees and catbirds.  Despite the lack of any new life or year birds, it was still a nice walk.  The day’s highlight happened on my way back along the trail.  At a cliff cutout where I saw a hummingbird on my first pass, I noticed another hummingbird-like creature hovering over some purple clover-like flowers (spotted knapweed).  A few steps closer and I realized what it was- my first hummingbird moth.  I managed one photo of the mimic before it flew off, zipping up and away in the same manner as its namesake bird.  I waited in the area for a bit hoping it would return, but it didn’t.  An increase of other passersby probably didn’t help.  I was content with my photo and continued on back to my car.
Hummingbird clearwing moth.  © S. Weiss

The moth, more precisely, was a hummingbird clearwing.  A hummingbird moth had been on my new species radar for quite awhile.  I got one, and a cool picture to prove it.

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