Jill Orme
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ormejks.bsky.social
Jill Orme
@ormejks.bsky.social
3.6K followers 6.8K following 1.2K posts
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/
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ormejks.bsky.social
I love the absolute abandon with which Mute Swans take a bath. River Avon, Stratford, 23/11/25.

#birds #UKBirds #BritishBirds #swan #MuteSwan #CygnusOlor #StratfordUpnAvon #birding #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting 🪶
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 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 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 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.
November 27, 2025 at 9:55 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
A Little Egret in flight at NT Charlecote.
#birds #flight #heron #LittleEgret #EgrettaGarzetta #Charlecote #NationalTrust #NTCharlecote #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography 🪶
A Little Egret in profile, flying left to right against a diffused background of autumnal trees. It's a small heron with snow-white plumage, black legs and bill, and yellow feet. It flies with its legs and feet stretched out behind it.
October 23, 2025 at 9:37 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Cryptic:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/342779...

#birds #bittern #BotaurusStellaris #heron #Slimbridge #WildfowlAndWetlandsTrust #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting 🪶
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.
October 23, 2025 at 11:06 AM
ormejks.bsky.social
A Nuthatch in the churchyard of Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon.
#birds #nuthatch #SittaEuropaea #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #ChurchyardBirding #StratfordUponAvon #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography 🪶
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.
October 19, 2025 at 5:54 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Magpie, Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon, 10/10/25. As the invertebrate season draws towards its close, we're heading back into the season of churchyard birding.
#birds #magpie #PicaPica #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #ChurchyardBirding #StratfordUponAvon 🪶
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.
October 13, 2025 at 5:27 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Wren, Warwickshire, 08/10/25.
#birds #wren #TroglodytesTroglodytes #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography 🪶
A Wren in half profile, perched on the sloping edge of a cut post, looking towards the left of frame, and shot against a pale, diffused background. It's a small mid-brown bird, with a short tail that it's holding up at a sharp angle. It has a paler patch of feathers above its eye, and its tail and flight feathers are a deeper chestnut brown colour than its back and breast, and are barred in even deeper brown. There is also some pale barring on the wings.
October 13, 2025 at 5:11 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
A Garden Spider with her packed lunch.

#arachtober #invertebrates #arachnids #spider #GardenSpider #AraneusDiadematus #predation #CommonWasp #VespulaVulgaris #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
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.
October 8, 2025 at 10:24 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
A Grey Heron in flight at NT Croome. @midsandeastnt.bsky.social
#birds #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #Croome #NationalTrust 🪶
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.
October 5, 2025 at 9:03 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Beauty spot:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/341654...

#insects #invertebrates #odonata #dragonfly #SouthernHawker #AeshnaCyanea #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
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.
September 21, 2025 at 9:43 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Predation:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/341602...

#birds #UKBirds #BritishBirds #GreyHeron #ArdeaCinerea #birding #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography 🪶 #predation #StratfordUponAvon #insects #invertebrates #odonata #dragonfly #MigrantHawker #AeshnaMixta #UKWildlife #NatureWriting #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
A juvenile Grey Heron, photographed in right profile, with only its head and neck and the top of its back and wings in shot. It's a large blue-grey bird with black and white markings on its breast, a white chin, and the beginnings of black plumes beginning to grow from the back of its head. Its bill is black above and orange below, and in it the Heron is holding a Migrant Hawker dragonfly it has caught. The dragonfly's wings are sticking out on either side of the bird's bill, and its head, with blue eyes, one foreleg and part of its body can just be seen in the narrow opening between the jaws.
September 20, 2025 at 11:04 AM
ormejks.bsky.social
Batesian mimickry: a European Hornet, heavily armed at both ends, and its doppelgänger, the entirely harmless Hornet Hoverfly.
#insects #invertebrates #hornet #VespaCrabro #HornetHoverfly #VolucellaZonaria #ivy #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
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 female Hornet Hoverfly, feeding on ivy. Like the Hornet she mimics, this hoverfly has a yellow face, red eyes, a red-brown thorax and scutellum, and a yellow abdomen striped in brown black. Her wings are brown, and she has red-brown legs. She's smaller than the Hornet, at about 2cm long, but she's still an impressive insect.
September 17, 2025 at 4:29 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Spirit animal:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/341438...

#insects #invertebrates #odonata #dragonfly #MigrantHawker #AeshnaMixta #StratfordUponAvon #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
A male Migrant Hawker in flight, shot in profile against a dark background, the dragonfly angled from the top right of the frame towards the bottom left. He is a medium-sized dragonfly with a white face, blue eyes, a brown thorax with two broad diagonal yellow stripes on the side, and a mosaic patterned blue and black abdomen.
September 15, 2025 at 10:09 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Black Tern, Farmoor Reservoir, Oxon., 11/09/25.
www.blipfoto.com/entry/341429...

#birds #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #BlackTern #ChlidoniasNiger #Farmoor #FarmoorReservoir #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting 🪶
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 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 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. In this image it is just beginning to tip into a dive towards the water. 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.
September 15, 2025 at 4:45 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
A Hummingbird Hawkmoth on red valerian in my Worcestershire garden.
#insects #invertebrates #moth #HummingbirdHawkmoth #MacroglossumStellatarum #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
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.
September 12, 2025 at 4:22 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
A male Migrant Hawker over a reed bed in the River Avon at Stratford.
#insects #invertebrates #odonata #dragonfly #MigrantHawker #AeshnaMixta #StratfordUponAvon #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
A male Migrant Hawker in flight, shot in profile, the dragonfly angled from the top right of the frame towards the bottom left. He is a medium-sized dragonfly with a white face, blue eyes, a brown thorax with two broad diagonal yellow stripes on the side, and a mosaic patterned blue and black abdomen.
September 12, 2025 at 4:15 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Larch Ladybird:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/341107...

#insects #invertebrates #beetle #ladybird #LarchLadybird #AphidectaObliterata #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
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.
September 6, 2025 at 7:41 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Red-legged Shieldbug in the rain.
#insects #invertebrates #bug #shieldbug #RedLeggedShieldbug #PentatomaRufipes #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
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.
September 6, 2025 at 9:36 AM
ormejks.bsky.social
Model:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/341070...

#insects #invertebrates #odonata #dragonfly #SouthernHawker #AeshnaCyanea #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
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.
September 5, 2025 at 6:13 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Play time:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/341037...

#birds #gull #BlackHeadedGull #ChroicocephalusRidibundus #juvenile #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting 🪶
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.
September 4, 2025 at 9:02 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Four from Farmoor Reservoir on 26/08/25: a juvenile Little Ringed Plover, a juvenile Little Stint, a juvenile Common Tern, and Little Egrets fighting at Pinkhill Meadow.
#birds #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #Farmoor #FarmoorReservoir #Pinkhill 🪶
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 juvenile Little Stint. This is a very small wading bird with a straight fine black bill and medium-length black legs. Its back, wings, and crown are a mosaic of dark brown, chestnut, and buff, and it has two distinct white stripes running along its back, like a pair of braces. Its underparts are white, and its neck is marled grey. A juvenile Common Tern, standing on the edge of a reservoir, calling for a parent to feed it. It has grey flight feathers with paler edges, and its wing coverts and back are mottled grey, brown and buff, with a scaly appearance. Its underparts are white, its crown and the nape of its neck are in process of turning black, and its forehead is marled brown. Its legs and feet are orange, as its protruding tongue, and its bill is black with an orange gape. A group of four Little Egrets in a water meadow. These are small, snowy white herons, with black bills and legs and yellow feet. The bird centre right of the image is leaping towards the one upper left of shot, its neck extended, its beak open threateningly, and its wings raised behind it. The bird under attack is leaping backwards, shown by the trail of water droplets coming from its feet, which are level with the attacking bird's breast. Its face is partially obscured by its half-spread wings. The remaining two birds are standing still, apparently just watching the confrontation - one centre left of frame with its back turned to the camera, and the other at far right of shot, facing left.
September 1, 2025 at 3:44 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Love in the afternoon
www.blipfoto.com/entry/340635...

#insects #invertebrates #odonata #dragonfly #MigrantHawker #AeshnaMixta #copulation #MatingWheel #BugPorn #BugSex #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders #MacroMonday
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.
August 25, 2025 at 8:33 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Tick:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/340600...

#insects #invertebrates #odonata #damselfly #WillowEmeraldDamselfly #ChalcolestesViridis #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #StingsNWings #SmallWonders #stunday
A female Willow Emerald Damselfly, shot in left profile, clinging to a lichen-covered branch. She is mostly metallic green and gold, but she has some pale matte yellow markings at the base of the sides of her thorax, and the interlocking spur shape this pale yellow forms with the metallic green above it is diagnostic of the species. Her wings are clear, with pale orange wing spots her legs are black with longitudinal buff stripes, and her eyes are deep red above, shading down to greeny yellow below.
August 24, 2025 at 5:40 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
Wild Wednesday:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/340569...

#birds #hawk #raptor #sparrowhawk #AccipiterNisus #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #GardenBirding #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting 🪶
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.
August 22, 2025 at 10:42 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
A Ringed Plover hunting for insects at Farmoor Reservoir in Oxfordshire.
#birds #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #RingedPlover #CharadriusHiaticula #Farmoor #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography 🪶
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.
August 21, 2025 at 8:41 PM
ormejks.bsky.social
A hovering Migrant Hawker in a reed bed alongside the River Avon at Stratford-upon-Avon.
#insects #invertebrates #odonata #dragonfly #MigrantHawker #AeshnaMixta #flight #StratfordUponAvon #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders #InsectThursday
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.
August 21, 2025 at 8:34 PM