Two pretty bugs and a butterfly

Around the same time I was being looked at by my frog audience, two bugs walked towards me.

The first one was this birch shieldbug (Elasmostethus interstinctus) in happy colours. It looked like it was saluting me with its front leg, but I had been sitting in the sun for a few hours, so that was probably just a hallucination:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 42mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/160s}

Next was this rare beetle (Carabus clathratus). It came walking towards me across the peat moss, and stopped to have a look. It has nice colours, but its head is the stuff nightmares or monsters in cheap scifi movies are made of:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 300mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/200s}

This chequered skipper (Carterocephalus palaemon) also though the peat moss was a good place to catch some sun:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 300mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/160s}

Most photos here were taken sitting down near a pond in the peat bog, looking at the scenery. Not a bad way to spend a few hours.

Thanks for watching!