Hummingbird Moths in Colorado

Generally speaking, we are not a fan of moths as they are not usually as colorful or pretty as butterflies. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t seen some that are quite interesting, even if still a little disturbing. Perhaps it is because moths often fly out of dark places when disturbed that make them even more freaky in addition to their furry bodies. We did, however, have a visitor come to our patio this past week that was both a little creepy and yet interesting, it was a hummingbird moth. We had never heard of such a thing until we saw one in our yard and looked it up on the internet.

Approaching the Flower
Hummingbird Moth Drinking Nectar

After a long day of working on our yard, we sat out on our patio to relax at the end of the day. We have a couple of honeysuckle plants at the edge of our patio that will often attract hummingbirds to our yard. As it had gotten dark, we were preparing to go inside when we saw what looked like a hummingbird buzzing around one of the honeysuckle plants, but we knew that a hummingbird wouldn’t be at out in the dark. We took our phones a took a couple of photographs, but the pictures weren’t able to capture any detail. It was clear that it was a moth, but that was all that we could discern.

Slowing Down on Approach
Photograph from Our Phone. It Looks Like an Alien and You Can See How Long the Tongue Is.

Later in the week, we had a couple more hummingbird moths show up and drink nectar from the honeysuckle plants, so we grabbed our actual camera. We were able to capture the moths and actually see their colorful wings. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t still a little creepy when you see them buzzing around in the dark, but at least we know that they aren’t as ugly as we had first thought when all we had were shadowy images. Have you ever seen a hummingbird moth before and, if so, what did it look like?

It Looks Like It Is Going to Give the Flower a Hug
Colorful Details
Blending In With the Flowers
Having a Drink

The Food of the Taste of Colorado

Although we were surprised by the amount of other things for sale at the Taste of Colorado, there were still plenty of food vendors and we definitely got our fill of tasty treats. Some of the food was more typical to a carnival than a food show, but there were also some more elegant options as well. You have the choice to have small tastes of items or you can have a full entrée if you prefer. We mostly chose to have small bites so that we could try a wider variety of food.

Food Vendors

Chicken Satay on the Grill

Carnival Food

The best things that we ate was Chilli Chicken (and that is how they spelled it) from Bawarchi Biryani Point. It was the best Indian food that we have had since we visited India several years ago. We also enjoyed a couple of Thai chicken wings that were sweet and spicy from Yaffa’s Savory Mediterranean.

Chilli Chicken

The Staff at Their Tent

Thai Wings

Something that you can’t find everyday was the fried alligator that we had from Bayou Bob’s Seafood and Southern Cookin’. It would have been too much for us to eat, but there were a lot of people who enjoyed giant turkey legs, a traditional carnival favorite. We did, however, give the roasted corn on the cob a try from the Colorado Corn Company and it was buttery and delicious.

Fried Alligator

Giant Turkey Legs

Roasted Corn

If sweets were what you wanted, there were plenty of options there as well. As expected, you could certainly find several places where you could get some traditional funnel cake. There were other options as well, such as cookies and giant rice crispy treats. We aren’t into to sweets, so we opted for a curried deviled egg from Baur’s Restaurant and Aqua Terra Culinary.

Fancy Funnel Cakes

Rice Crispy Treats

Curried Deviled Egg

Although it wasn’t actually at the Taste of Colorado, we also had some spicy calamari at Henry’s tavern when we decided to get out of the heat for a little while and get into some air conditioning. We also had a couple of beers while we were walking around, but we ended our evening with a couple of cocktails at The Mix in the Sheraton hotel where we watched all of the people dressed up for the anime convention.

Calamari

Cocktails

Food Demonstration

Unfortunately there were only so many restaurants that we could try, so we will have to go back next year in order to make the rounds again. In addition to the food, there was also a tent with food demonstrations, which were very informative. There were definitely some creative choices, so if you go, make sure that you bring your appetite with you.