Creepy Crawler

Ed stopped digging long enough to show me this caterpillar that he had captured in a bucket.  We turned him loose on the top of the stone wall for his photo op.  I'm generally pretty brave about picking up caterpillars, but this one is big, over three inches, and that red horn on his butt is intimidating. It never ceases to amaze me how many interesting animals live in our garden. This one is Hyles gallii, Galium sphinx. It likes bedstraw and we have an acre or two of bedstraw here. I have to wonder if this is one of the sphinx moths that I sometimes see on the lavender bee balm in the summer. Now that I know what to look for, I will try to be more observant.