Filosofisk Film/Philosophical Films

Other flying friends




 On this page I have collected, and will collect, movie clips of butterflies, moths, bees and hornets – no rarities, just for joy, and in chronological order. The bird movies that used to be on this page have been moved to the page Bird and birdsong on film.

Pine Hawk-moth (Spinx pinastri, Swedish: tallsvärmare). Hålanda, late on 2 July 2010, in our garden. Camera: Canon HV20, showing one of its few weaknesses: the lack of a working manual focussing.




Another Pine Hawk-moth (sv: tallsvärmare) visiting the day lilys in our garden in Hålanda in the night of 8 June 2011. The shouting at the end is directed at a cat that tries to catch it. Camera: XL-H1A.




Regrettably, the below lovely meadow in Steninge, Halland does not exist any more, due to the demands of rational (?) agriculture. So I am glad that I captured some of its life - flowers as well as butterflies - on August 15, 2011. The prominent red flower that appears in the second half is Orange hawkweed (Pilosella aurantica, Swedish: rödfibbla). Canon XL-H1A, shaky hand camera and a lot of wind noise, but that's also life.




Hornets (Vespa crabo, Swedish: bålgetingar) at their nest in Steninge, Halland. Three occasions in August through October 2011. Hornets are becoming more and more rare because people are so afraid of them. But their sting is not more poisonous than that of an ordinary wasp, and they are much less aggressive than wasps. I filmed them for hours at a distance of around one meter, and they did not bother about me!




Another bee movie. A few glimpses of "our" honeybees in Båljen, Hålanda. There are also a few bumblebees (humlor) and many hoverflies (blomflugor) to be seen. It is in September 2013 and among the only sources of nectar left are the red or yellow Helenium (Swedish: solbrud) and the Centaurea scabiosa (väddklint). The buckthorne (havtorn) belongs to the few shrubs and trees that the bees do not pollinate (it is wind pollinated). But the bees just love buckthorne jam. – Camera: Canon XL-H1A with original 20x zoom lens.




Then a a technically unsatisfactory sequence showing a hornet (bålgeting) hunting hoverflies on a warm summer day. Hålanda, 10 August 2014. Camera: XH-A1s, sound: Telinga Pro 5 and Stereo DAT mic. Here I surely sensed the lack of a high-speed camera... but I hope that the sequence conveys some impression of the panic that the predator created. Note that hornets are very friendly creatures (to us, that is) and should be protected, not exterminated.





Finally (for the moment) a migratory non-bird: a Striped Hawk-moth (Hyles livorniva, vitribbad skymningssvärmare) on Marettimo, Sicily 30 April 2018. There were thousands of them. A large number of migratory birds had also just arrived. Camera: handheld Panasonic GH5 with Panasonic-Leica 12–60 mm zoom lens.




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Page updated May 14, 2019