Country diary: A peachy taste of the exotic ? outside the Co-op | Josie George

Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire: Hovering among the underwatered petunias, a hummingbird hawk moth - a showstopper in flight and the darling of its familyIt's been a summer of surprising urban nature encounters here. Peregrine falcons over Primark, a family of goldcrests in the yew tree of the town graveyard, bouncing around its shadowy branches, and now this? A hummingbird by the Co-op? My common sense catches up with my eyes soon after. This is a hummingbird hawk moth. My first sighting, and here it is feeding on the last few underwatered petunias of the supermarket plant trolley, just a few feet from the main road.Its small, pale-grey face is strangely owl-like. It hovers in a peach blur of 80 wing beats per second, unrolling its long, long proboscis like a fishing line to dip it into the centre of each flower with a delicate, intelligent kind of focus. I am utterly enchanted, grateful for its lingering, until, with a quick turn and a soft thrum, it's off and away. Continue reading...