Eristalis pertinax – Jill Orme Photography

31 Mar 2025

Itchy

by JDO | posted in: Hoverflies, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

I woke up this morning to the discovery that overnight I’d done something catastrophic to my back. I levered myself approximately upright, and limped carefully downstairs with the aim of making some tea, but the act of lifting the kettle … Continued

15 Mar 2025

Hairy

by JDO | posted in: Hoverflies, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

This morning I cut back some more shrubs – increasingly grateful for the powered secateurs that make the job so easy – and then did some general garden tidying, and planted up the new heucheras on the patio. By the … Continued

24 Mar 2024

Aphid eater

by JDO | posted in: Hoverflies, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

This was my first Eupeodes of the season, and I was pleased to have my identification confirmed by the hoverfly recorders, because male Eupeodes are tricky, and can’t always be taken to species. We have nine of these species in … Continued

22 Oct 2023

Slurp

by JDO | posted in: Hoverflies, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

The sun came out today, and with it an absolute swarm of pollen and nectar feeders arrived on a late-flowering patch of ivy on top of the old farm wall that borders our drive. Why this patch comes into flower … Continued

27 Mar 2023

Springy

by JDO | posted in: Flies, Hoverflies, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

For the first time this year, the garden was literally humming with flying insects, and you could almost see it lift its head, drop its shoulders, take a long, deep breath, and stride out into spring. Or maybe that was … Continued

31 May 2022

Hoverating

by JDO | posted in: Hoverflies, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

I was raging to go out in search of dragons today, and had several potentially good sites in mind, but the weather forecasts for all of them suggested that if I went I had around a 30% chance of being … Continued

8 Apr 2022

Elevenses

by JDO | posted in: Flowers and plants, Hoverflies, Invertebrates, Trees, Worcestershire | 0

Today was a day of two halves. This morning was warm and bright, with very little wind, and there were so many invertebrates flying that when I went out walking with the camera that I hardly knew where to point … Continued

25 Sep 2021

Michaelmas hoverfly

by JDO | posted in: Flowers and plants, Hoverflies, Invertebrates, Worcestershire | 0

I debated with myself for some time this evening over which of these two photos to feature. The extra, taken with flash in the darkest corner of the wild garden, is much better-focused than the main image, but in the … Continued

3 Nov 2020

Contortionist

by JDO | posted in: Hoverflies, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

One of the earliest invertebrate arrivals in the garden this spring was a male Eristalis pertinax which was fond of basking on the aucuba, so it seems fitting that another male of that species should appear on the same shrub … Continued

16 Mar 2020

Social distancing

by JDO | posted in: Bugs, Hoverflies, Invertebrates, My garden, Worcestershire | 0

R and I took ourselves off to Croome this morning, lugging a large flask of coffee which we drank sitting on a bench overlooking the lake. You can’t completely avoid people there of course – you have to enter through … Continued