Jill Orme

@ormejks.bsky.social

3603 Followers 6824 Following

Photographer, blogger, family historian and low-grade choral singer. Passionate about wildlife. Feminist. Humanist. Centrist. Pro-EU. Pro-PR. #FBPE #FBPPR https://jillorme.org.uk/ https://www.instagram.com/jillorme/

A male Dark-edged Bee-fly feeding from a grape hyacinth flower. He is a large fly with a rounded body covered in mid-brown hair, and a hairy face. He has long, thin legs and a very long proboscis, which he holds out in front like a narwhal's tusk. He has brown eyes, which meet each other on top of his head, and his wings have a dark, scalloped mark along the leading edge.

A Canada Goose flies low over a river, moving from right to left through the frame with both wings angled downwards. This is a large goose with a black head and neck, a creamy white chin and breast, and mottled brown back and wing feathers, darkening towards the flight feathers. Its bill and legs are black.

A Mute Swan bathing on the River Avon at Stratford. As part of the bathing routine they thrash their wings down alternately onto the surface of the water, to drive it up into their feathers. The twisting of the bird and the splashing they generate give good photo opportunities.

A Eurasian Bittern stands among thick reeds, only its head, neck and breast visible. This is a medium-sized, thick set heron with pale, buff-brown plumage covered with dark streaks and bars. The crown of its head is black and it has a black moustache. It's standing very still in a typical pose, with its neck extended and its head lifted so its bill is at about 45° to the horizontal. This, and its cryptic colouring, help it to remain camouflaged among the reeds where it's usually found.

A European Nuthatch stands on the horizontal edge of a monument in a dark churchyard. The left hand side of the monument, the bird itself, and the yew fronds behind it, are all angled diagonally across the frame, top left to bottom right. The Nuthatch is a small bird with a grey-blue back and wings, and orange underparts. Its face is white and it has a black stripe running horizontally from the top of its bill, through its eye and along onto the top of its shoulder. Its legs are pale and its narrow, pointed beak is black.

A Magpie perches on top of an old, mossy monument in a dark churchyard, with three other gravestones also in the shot. The Magpie is facing away from the camera, its head turned to the left. It's a mainly black and white bird, with a black head and neck and a white breast, but its flight feathers are a spectacular iridescent blue, shading into green, and its long, slender tail is green, shading through purple to blue and finally teal.

A Garden Spider on her web, holding the partly wrapped body of a Common Wasp she has caught. She is a large orange-brown spider with small white patches on her back forming a kind of cross shape, and legs ringed in brown and fawn.

A Grey Heron in flight over a misty scrub field, with an autumn-leafed tree in the upper background, and a reed bed with bulrushes below. The bird is a large predatory wader, with an ash-grey back, tail, neck and wing coverts, dark blue-grey flight feathers, a white face, a blue-black crown, and streaky black and white markings on the front of its neck. Its long, sharp bill is orange, and its legs are brown.

A male Southern Hawker clings to a quince tree leaf. He is a large dragonfly, and here he is shot in close-up, with only his head and thorax, his right-hand legs, and the tops of his wings in the frame. His face is yellow, with some dark markings that are unique to individual dragonflies. His eyes are bright blue in the centre, with brown along their forward edges, yellow below and behind, and green above. His thorax is brown, with two thick green-yellow stripes running down the front (colloquially known as "headlights", and unique to this species among UK dragonflies), and two running diagonally along each side. There are also a series of green-yellow markings on the top of his thorax, and around the insertions of his wings.

A European Hornet feeding on ivy. This is a fresh queen, feeding up before winter hibernation. She's about 3cm long, with a yellow head, read forehead, red C-shaped eyes, a red-brown thorax and waist, and a mainly yellow abdomen, patterned in brown. Her wings are brown, her antennae are pinkish-red, and her legs are red-brown.

A Black Tern in flight over a UK reservoir. In winter plumage, this small tern has grey upperparts, white underparts, a black cap, a white forehead, and a white collar with a dark smudge at the level of its eye. Its beak and legs are black.

A Hummingbird Hawkmoth feeding from a patch of red valerian. This is a fairly large brown moth, with a white chin, pale underparts, and mosaic patches of cream, white, and black towards the rear of its body. Its forewings are brown with wavy black lines across them, and its hind wings are vivid orange. It has long black antennae, and an extremely long, black tongue, which allows it to feed from tube-shaped flowers while hovering above them.

A Larch Ladybird, photographed on the arm of a wooden bench. It's a small beetle, 4-5mm long, with mid-brown, slightly spotty wing cases. There's a darker, smudgy line towards the back of each wing case, and another one along their junction. Its pronotum is pale, with a dark brown mark that vaguely resembles a smudgy 'M' or 'W'. Its face is black and white, its eyes are black, and its legs and antennae are brown.

A Red-legged Shieldbug stands on a wet heuchera leaf after a rain shower. The bug is large, with extended angular "shoulders". It's mainly a deep bronzy brown colour, but it has an orange spot at the tip of its scutellum, and the connexivum (the flattened edge of the abdomen) is chequered in cream and dark blue. Its legs are a deep orangey red, with tiny black spots. The leaf is a deep violet colour.

A female Southern Hawker hangs from a spent flower of a buddleja bush. She's a large dragonfly with a mosaic pattern of brown and apple green markings all over her body. Her face is yellow, and her eyes are yellow below and greeny-brown above, with a bright blue marking across the junction of the upper and lower zones. She's been shot in close-up, with only her head, legs, thorax, and the first section of her abdomen clearly visible, along with the bases of her wings, which are clear.

A juvenile Black-headed Gull, shot head-on. It seems to hang in the air, both wings outstretched, looking downwards and to its right, with its legs stretched downwards and feet splayed, and its beak open. It's mainly greyish-white, with brown tips to its wings and tail, and a small black smudge behind its eye. Its legs and feet are orange, and its beak is orange with a black tip. Below the bird is dark water, and behind it is a stone kerb and a bank covered with green foliage.

A juvenile Little Ringed Plover. This is a very small wading bird, with a scaly-looking grey-brown back and wings, a white belly, a white breast, and a partial black neckband. It has a scaly-looking brown cap, a white forehead, a white chin and neck, and a short dark bill. Its legs are yellow.

A pair of Migrant Hawkers hang from a reed in the mating wheel position. They are medium-sized dragonflies. The female is mosaic patterned in brown, black and yellow, and has brown and greeny yellow eyes. The male has similar patterning, but on his abdomen most of the yellow markings are replaced by blue ones, and his eyes are blue and brown.

A juvenile female Sparrowhawk stands on the bonnet of a white car, her beak and talons showing evidence of the white pigeon she recently killed. She's a small hawk with pale underparts barred in grey-brown, and a grey-brow back and head with a white stripe above the eye.

A Ringed Plover hunts for insects in the debris on the bank of a reservoir. It's a small wading bird with white underparts, a brown back and wings, a dark brown collar, a white throat, and a brown head with white stripes above the beak and eyes, and a black forehead stripe.

A Migrant Hawker hovering, angled towards the camera from the top left of the frame, against a diffused background of dark green leaves. He is a medium-large dragonfly, with a 2-tone face (yellow above and white below), blue eyes, a brown thorax with yellow markings on the shoulders and the sides, and a blue, brown and black, mosaic-patterned abdomen. His wings, which are clear with brown wings spots, are pictured in the counter-stroking position - all are held out at 45° to his body so that they form an X shape.

A male Common Darter in obelisk pose on top of a post. He's a small red dragonfly with diagonal red and yellow panels along the sides of his thorax, red eyes, red wing spots, and cream stripes along his otherwise black legs. The obelisk pose involves a kind of handstand, with the head down and the abdomen pointing upwards at a very steep angle towards the sun. It allows the dragonfly to control its temperature by reducing the surface area of its body on which direct sunlight is falling.

A male Common Darter perches at the end of a reed above a pond. He is a small red dragonfly with a brown face and red-brown eyes. His brown thorax has bright red markings at the insertions of his wings, and alternate diagonal yellow and red stripes (2 of each) along the sides. His wings are clear with dark red wing spots. In this image his head is tipped back, as he looks up at the sky to check for danger.

A male Brown Hawker hangs from a blackberry in a bramble hedge. He's a large brown dragonfly with small blue markings at the bases of his wings and the top of his abdomen, and within his otherwise brown eyes. He is dorsal side on to the camera, which means that the diagonal yellow flashes on the sides of his thorax can only just be glimpsed. He has amber-coloured wings

A male Willow Emerald Damselfly hangs from a twig of an elder tree with his wings spread in an inverted 'V', brightly sunlit against a dark background, He is a very slender, dark metallic green damselfly, with paler yellow-green markings on the sides of his thorax, and faint yellow-green stripes marking the junctions of his abdominal segments. His anal appendages are white, and his wing spots are a pale buff colour.

A juvenile male Green Woodpecker rests on a lawn, his head raised to watch the surrounding trees. He is beginning to moult from mottled juvenile to sleeker adult plumage, but at the moment he still looks quite spotty. His back and wings are yellowy green, and his breast is mottled grey and green. He has a red cap, grey cheeks, and a black moustache which is developing the red centre that shows he's a male. His bill is quite long and pointed, and is covered in soil, revealing that he has been digging in the lawn for the ants that are his preferred food.

A female Clouded Yellow butterfly feeds on red clover, among tangled vegetation. The upper surfaces of her wings are deep golden yellow, with a single brown spot on each forewing, and they have a broad brown border patterned with yellow spots. Her body is pale lemon yellow, and her head and antennae are flushed pink. She is holding her body in a defensive posture with her abdomen raised, as a signal to a nearby male that she will not mate with him.

A Tiger Hoverfly, or Sun Fly, stands on a leaf beside a pond. He is yellow and black - his thorax has longitudinal yellow and black stripes, and his abdomen has paired transverse yellow markings on a black ground. His legs are also patterned in yellow and black, and his eyes are very dark red.

A female Banded Demoiselle lies on her side on the surface of a river, partly submerged, probing beneath the water for suitable vegetation into which to lay her eggs. She is a large, metallic green damselfly with green wings. Her male partner, who is dark metallic blue with a broad blue band across his wings, is standing on top of her partly-submerged body to ensure that no other male can seize and mate with her before she has laid the eggs he fertilized.

An Eyed Ladybird, photographed on a chestnut tree leaf. This is the UK's largest ladybird, averaging 9mm in length. It's a highly variable species, but this specimen is typical. Its wing cases have fifteen cream-edged black spots on a russet background, and its pronotum is boldly marked in black and white. It has black legs. It mainly lives in conifers (this one was found in a cypress tree), and eats aphids.

A male Keeled Skimmer rests among vegetation at the edge of a lake. He is a medium sized dragonfly, about 4cm long, and very slender. His abdomen is blue (still showing a little of his immature ochre colouring at the base), his thorax is brown with pale shoulder stripes, and his eyes are grey-blue. His wings are clear, with orange wing spots. He is holding onto a dead stem which is angled from the bottom centre left of the image up towards the top right. In the background are green and brown leaves and bright yellow flowers.

A male Emperor in flight over a pond. He is a large dragonfly with a yellow face, blue and yellow eyes, an apple green thorax and a mid blue abdomen with black markings. He is flying from left to right of the image, the background of which is a diffuse mosaic of greens and browns from the vegetation on the surface of the pond.

A juvenile Long-tailed Tit on a branch of a hawthorn sapling. It's a small, stubby bird, measuring about 12cm in length - but more than half of that is accounted for by its long tail. Adults are black, grey, and pinkish white, but this juvenile is mainly grey and brown, and still quite fluffy. It has a very short beak, and its small black eye is partly ringed with pink.

A tiny parasitoid wasp, Ormyrus nitidulus, climbs a pond sedge leaf in a garden pond. She is about 5mm long, with a hunched posture and a sharply pointed end to the abdomen. She is metallic blue, blue-green, and gold, with brilliant red eyes, and strongly embossed and patterned gastric tergites. Her larvae parasitise the larvae of the wasp responsible for Knopper galls in English oak trees.

An Emperor dragonfly hangs from a dock plant, which is untidy and running to seed. He is a large dragonfly, with a pale face, blue-green eyes, a green thorax and a blue abdomen with a broad black line running down the centre. The blue of his eyes and abdomen contrasts with the brown leaves and seeds of the plant. In the background of the image, behind the dock, is diffuse greenery.

A Small Copper butterfly feeds from a cluster of deep purple heliotrope flowers, against a pale background. It has bright orange forewings with dark brown spots and a thick, dark brown margin, and dark brown hindwings that are banded with orange. The underside of its forewing is a paler version of the upper side, with the dark spots additionally ringed in white. The underside of its hindwing is buff-coloured, with a scattering of small dark spots. Its wingspan is around 3cm.

A female Eupeodes corollae hoverfly rests on the vivid red bloom of a crocosmia 'Lucifer' against a dark green background. She is a small hoverfly, about 8mm in length. Her abdomen is black, with three pairs of creamy, comma-shaped markings extending towards the centre line from the margins. Her thorax is brassy, her eyes are red, and her face is pale. This hoverfly doesn't really have a common name in the UK, but it's a migratory species whose larvae are voracious eaters of aphids, and one source calls it the Migrant Aphideater.

A male Red-tailed Bumblebee feeds from a yellow and red gaillardia flower. The bee is black, with a yellow collar, a broad red tail and a neat yellow moustache.

A Scarce Chaser rests on the end of a decaying iris leaf, above a background of brown river water. He is a medium-sized dragonfly with a chalky blue abdomen and black tail, a black thorax, pale blue eyes and a shiny black face.

A Scarlet Darter basks on sunlit chalky ground. He is a small dragonfly, about 4cm long, with a vivid red face and abdomen, and a darker red thorax, eyes, and legs. His wings are mainly clear, with pale wing spots, large orange-yellow patches at the bases, and red veining at the bases and along the leading edges.

A pair of Gatekeeper butterflies copulating on a laurel hedge. Both butterflies have their wings folded, displaying the undersides. The hindwings are orangey-brown, with a wavy cream band running across the wing towards the outer edge. To either side of the band are some small white spots with dark borders. The forewings - mainly hidden by the hindwings - are orange, with a darker band at the outer edge, and a paler area next to this that contains a large black spot with two small white spots inside it.

A Four-banded Flower Bee feeds from the purple flower of a black horehound plant. He is a small grey and black solitary bee, with a yellow face and large grey eyes.

An immature female Migrant Hawker hangs from a branch of a hazel tree. She is a medium-sized dragonfly, predominantly brown, with paired lilac spots along her abdomen which will turn yellow as she matures. Her eyes, currently grey, will turn greeny-brown.

A Norfolk (or Green-eyed) Hawker flies over a water meadow. He is a medium-sized brown dragonfly, with two yellow diagonal stripes on the side of his thorax and pale green eyes.

A fresh female Lesser Emperor clings to the trunk of a sapling in a sunny birch wood. She is a medium-sized dragonfly with pale green eyes, a brown thorax, and a bright blue abdomen with a heavy longitudinal brown stipe running along the dorsal surface. Her legs are red, and her wings are clear, with a yellow vein along the leading edge.

A Brown-banded Carder Bee worker collects pollen from a black horehound flower. She is a smallish bumblebee. Her thorax has bright ginger hair on top with white hair on the sides. The hair on her abdomen is buff-coloured, with a ginger band over the second abdominal section. She has a small pollen ball on her hind leg. The black horehound flowers she is visiting are a pale lilac colour.