Author Archives: JDO

This has been a really bad year for ladybirds. Two years ago, when I was quite newly into macro photography, I found so many species in the garden – native, as well as immigrants like this one – that I … Continued

For about the past two decades, there has been an issue around one of my canine teeth, alternately grumbling and flaring, which successive dental hygienists have tried and failed to fix. Today I finally allowed myself to be sent to … Continued

R and I went for an early walk around Croome this morning. Both of us were tired from the exertions of the week (though he’d been doing actual proper work, so had more right to grumpy fatigue than I did), … Continued

The Black Darter is Britain’s smallest dragonfly, at an overall length of around 3.5 cm. It’s a species of moors and heaths, where it breeds in acidic pools and the shallow water at the margins of lakes, and it flies … Continued

After having a bad night, I slumped grumpily at my desk all morning, processing photo files while listening to political podcasts; but at lunch time I pulled myself together and went off to Upton Warren in search of birds. On … Continued

I’m calling this image Making the Best of a Frustrating Day. I drove to Shropshire this morning to look for Golden-ringed Dragonflies in Carding Mill Valley, but the only ones I think I saw were a distant shimmer of spotlit … Continued

I’ve been gadding about recently – too many trips out, too many photos taken, and not enough sorted, culled and processed; so I gave myself a relatively lazy day today and tried to catch up a little. As well as … Continued

I spent this afternoon at Croome, just because it felt like too long since I was last there. I hadn’t been planning to blip another Common Darter so soon after the one I posted on Sunday, but out of all … Continued

My hobby is chasing around after wildlife and trying to get better at photographing it. Some days are more successful than others, and today counts as a good one because I managed to capture this hobby, hunting dragonflies over Napton … Continued

The weather this morning was horrible, which gave me several hours with nothing better to do than work on photos. The good news is that I’ve now culled 90% of the photos I took yesterday of the Grey Phalarope. The … Continued