Jill Orme

Many thanks Jools! 😊

Thank you. 😊

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.

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 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.

Wren, Warwickshire, 08/10/25.
#birds #wren #TroglodytesTroglodytes #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography 🪶

Haha - indeed!

Context shot - my specialty!

Fabulous! 😍

No worries - none taken. 😊

I quite envy your version actually!

Good one to you too.

Many thanks. 😊

Guess we’re probably not from the same place then.

Thanks!

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 Garden Spider with her packed lunch.

#arachtober #invertebrates #arachnids #spider #GardenSpider #AraneusDiadematus #predation #CommonWasp #VespulaVulgaris #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders

Screen cap of parodic version of William Blake's "The Tyger" that begins: Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright (Not sure if I spelled that right) What immortal hand or eye Could fashion such a stripy guy? What the hammer that hath hewn it Into such a chonky unit? Did who made the lamb make thee, Or an external franchisee?

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

would this go with my silk scarf, Y/N

Many thanks Mary. 😊

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 Grey Heron in flight at NT Croome. @midsandeastnt.bsky.social
#birds #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #Croome #NationalTrust 🪶

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.

Beauty spot:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/341654...

#insects #invertebrates #odonata #dragonfly #SouthernHawker #AeshnaCyanea #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders

Many thanks Rob.

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.

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

Thanks Levon.

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.

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 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.

Spirit animal:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/341438...

#insects #invertebrates #odonata #dragonfly #MigrantHawker #AeshnaMixta #StratfordUponAvon #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders

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.

Black Tern, Farmoor Reservoir, Oxon., 11/09/25.
www.blipfoto.com/entry/341429...

#birds #UKBirds #BritishBirds #birding #BlackTern #ChlidoniasNiger #Farmoor #FarmoorReservoir #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting 🪶

Thanks Pru! They are a bit tricky!

Thank you! 😊

Many thanks Alan. 😊

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 Hummingbird Hawkmoth on red valerian in my Worcestershire garden.
#insects #invertebrates #moth #HummingbirdHawkmoth #MacroglossumStellatarum #GardenWildlife #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.

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

Thousands of tonnes of toxic landfill liquid added to sewage and spread on English farms Exclusive: Leachate is tankered to treatment works where it mixes with sewage and industrial effluent

SO MANY WTF STORIES THESE DAYS...🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯👇👇🤯
Thousands of tonnes of toxic landfill liquid added to sewage and spread on English farms www.theguardian.com/environment/...

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.

Larch Ladybird:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/341107...

#insects #invertebrates #beetle #ladybird #LarchLadybird #AphidectaObliterata #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders