One of the things I always look forward to when I go out for a walk, (apart from the exercise and the magnificent scenery of course), is to try and spot something new, or of interest, to capture on camera.  If I see something, like a butterfly, I’ll often follow it, wait for it to land and then try to get a close-up.  Bugs tend to be easier, as they move more slowly or may even sit still.  Flowers, equally, don’t move very much. 🙂

Then the fun starts…  When I get home and prepare my pictures for these posts, I scour my (Collins Gem, Butterflies; RSPB, Birds and Swiss Alpine Club, Our Alpine Flora) books to see what they might be, so that I can give them the correct title.  However, I don’t have a book on bugs and some birds are incredibly hard to identify.  A search of the internet for “Red bug” or “Small brown bird” reveals hundreds of images, none of which seem to match my pictures.

So I’m afraid the following gallery contains a few unknowns, some of which may be rare, I don’t know, but please let me know if you can identify any of them.  Also, I’ve cropped some the photos to provide a sort of close-up, so that you can see the detail of these magnificent little creatures.  I don’t know about you, but I think they are simply amazing.

Photographic footnote:  All of these pictures (indeed almost all of my recent pictures) were taken with a Lumix DMC-TZ58, point and shoot, camera.  If a subject stays still long enough, I can get the lens to within maybe 2cm (1″) of it.  The issue is sometimes getting the auto-focus to pick up the object that I’m aiming it at, but generally (or eventually) it works.  🙂

I’m advised that this is a Western Bonelli’s Warbler