After a long hot spell, yesterday was delightfully 'cool', so my wife and I went to "Fernwood", a botanical garden just across the Michigan line.
At first, the DA 20-40mm Ltd lens I had with me was what I wanted, but after a while, I was seeing butterflies which made me want my DA 55-300mm PLM, so I went back to the car for it,
Of course, once I had the longer lens, the butterflies seemed to be at the end of their work schedule - but just before we left I saw this guy .... and ended up snapping as many times at him as I had in the rest of the visit.
My wife liked this view the most since his tongue is so prominent.

[MikeMcE]

Excellent! I’ve got large bougainvilleas on my lanai, these are a treat to watch, but hard to capture!


Hang up and DRIVE!

[reh321]

Excellent! I’ve got large bougainvilleas on my lanai, these are a treat to watch, but hard to capture!

Thank you for your comment.

And so hard to get in good focus - at least with a KP!
The picture I've shown here is a crop of the left side of a picture - I believe the flower on the right side helped with focus in this case.
I wonder if a K-3iii would have recognized its eyes. and would have been helped by that.

[JimS_256]

Great shot! I don't think I've ever seen one of those before.

[MikeNArk]

Hummingbird moths are difficult to photo, especially head on. Looks good. Haven't had the opportunity to try shooting one with the KP yet.

[reh321]

Great shot! I don't think I've ever seen one of those before.

Hummingbird moths are difficult to photo, especially head on. Looks good. Haven't had the opportunity to try shooting one with the KP yet.

Thank you both for your comments,

I had heard of them - but not seen one.When I first saw it, I thought I would have my second chance at photographing a hummingbird - the last time, I was photographing signage, with flowers around it, with a Q-7, so I didn't have time to grab an appropriate lens. When I got close enough to photograph it, I realized it was probably one of those moths, and read about them online {which explained how they use their tongues} when I got home. Most {both mine and those online} are rear/top shots - which are interesting, and certainly made focusing easier, but only when I got home did my wife point out this interesting view on the far left of the image.

[angkymac]

THAT is its tongue!
Astonishing!
Angky.

[reh321]

THAT is its tongue!
Astonishing!
Angky.

Thank you for your comment.

According to my Internet sources, these insects prefer 'deep-throated' flowers, because they can reach any part of the flower while staying outside it, giving them an advantage over other insects.
Despite the fact that these gardens have lots of lilies and similar plants, these flowers are actually quite shallow, though,