Wiltshire – Jill Orme Photography

6 Jun 2025

Emerald

by JDO | posted in: Dragonflies, Invertebrates, Odonata, Wiltshire | 0

Mature Downy Emeralds are bronzy-green, with vivid green eyes, but it’s a long time since I last saw one – I usually go looking for them as they emerge, when they’re pinkish with buff-coloured eyes, and by this time in … Continued

2 May 2025

Quad

by JDO | posted in: Dragonflies, Invertebrates, Odonata, Wiltshire | 0

After a moderately successful visit to Lower Moor in Wiltshire last Monday, I thought I’d wait a few days to let the dragons really get going before making another trip down the Fosse. It turns out though that I needn’t … Continued

28 Apr 2025

Young Red Eyes

by JDO | posted in: Damselflies, Dragonflies, Invertebrates, Odonata, Wiltshire | 0

This morning I took my first trip in nearly a year to the Lower Moor nature reserve in Wiltshire, in search of Odonata. I’d barely walked into the the first enclosure when I accidentally disturbed a fresh female Red-eyed Damselfly, … Continued

4 May 2024

Happy

by JDO | posted in: Dragonflies, Invertebrates, Odonata, Wiltshire | 0

Finding that a free morning had coincided with the return of sunny weather, I whisked off down to Lower Moor in Wiltshire, in search of Downy Emeralds. To my intense satisfaction it turned out that there was a mass emergence … Continued

16 Aug 2023

Vagrant

by JDO | posted in: Damselflies, Dragonflies, Invertebrates, Odonata, Wiltshire | 0

My back, which has been niggling me for about a fortnight now, was so bad when I woke up this morning that it took me nearly an hour to get myself upright, and even then it needed heavy strapping before … Continued

24 May 2023

Empress

by JDO | posted in: Dragonflies, Invertebrates, Odonata, Wiltshire | 0

Voting for the coveted Dragon of the Day award resolved down to a nail-biting head-to-head between this teneral female Emperor, and a male Four-spotted Chaser whom I photographed mid-emergence. In the end the Emperor (Empress?) won because I’ve never seen … Continued

10 May 2023

Downy

by JDO | posted in: Dragonflies, Invertebrates, Odonata, Wiltshire | 0

I went to Wiltshire today on an Odonata hunt, and while I failed to find any Hairy Dragonflies or Four-spotted Chasers at Lower Moor, I was gifted sightings of two Downy Emeralds (though one was sadly crippled, with deformed wings … Continued

11 Apr 2023

Great bustard

by JDO | posted in: Birds, Wild animals, Wiltshire | 0

I got up at oh-no-surely-not-hundred hours this morning, to drive to Wiltshire for a wildlife photography workshop on Salisbury Plain. This was set up by the RPS Nature Group, and was run by Robert Harvey, ably assisted by Alan Benson. … Continued

17 May 2022

Downy Emerald

by JDO | posted in: Dragonflies, Invertebrates, Odonata, Trees, Wiltshire | 0

Time was when Lower Moor at Oaksey in Wiltshire was one of my my go-to summer places, because of the plethora of Odonata I could confidently expect it to provide. I didn’t visit during 2020 because of Covid, and then … Continued

1 Jun 2021

Circle of life

by JDO | posted in: Damselflies, Invertebrates, Odonata, Wiltshire | 0

I made a return trip to Lower Moor today in search of dragons, but dragons continue to be in short supply there, so it’s lucky that the entire reserve was seething with damselflies, or I’d have come home with nothing … Continued