Hawthorn Shield Bug

How lovely to have a sunny day at last! I decided to go to Whixall Moss this afternoon and had a long walk around. It's a flat lowland peat bog and I was on my own in the vast expanse of it for most of the time. This is great for solitude but as the copious mud sucks the feet down like quicksand, there was the disadvantage of a lack of anyone to pull me out!

I saw only two men (separately) and had a chat with both as we were all there with cameras. The first man was a photo framer for professional photographers that charges £500 for a frame. Phew!  The other man was a local that takes photos there as a hobby. 

I saw a chiffchaff but it had a twig across it's face in the photo so my blip is of a Hawthorn Shield Bug, the first shield bug that I've seen this year. I also saw a Peacock butterfly and a few Brimstones.