A keen birdwatcher and photographer, between the 1950s and 1980s, Jo published several illustrated articles, on the
bullfinch, the
jay, the
yellow bunting, the
common gull, the common
guillemot, the
jackdaw, the
ring ouzel or 'mountain blackbird', the
scoter, the
kestrel and
sparrowhawk, the birds of the
Calf of Eday in the
Orkney Islands, and of the
Great Saltee, as well as reflections on hybridisation of British birds, and the practice of ornithology, all illustrated with his original photographic work. In 1958, with friends Vince Connolly and Harry Shorrock, Jo photographed the
Leach's petrel at the nest, on
Eilean Mòr in the
Flannan Islands. This photograph, published in ''
Scotland's Magazine'' in 1961, is considered to be the first instance of this bird being photographed at the nest. Jo later gave illustrated public lectures on this and related topics, including, for example, in 1997 and 1999 for several Ornithological Societies in
Cheshire. In the late 1950s, a few years after the evacuation of the islands in 1953, he visited Great
Blasket (
Na Blascaodaí) and
Inishvickillane (
Inis Mhic Aoibhleáin) off County Kerry in Ireland, to establish whether there was a breeding colony of Leach's petrels in this archipelago. His illustrated record of this visit has been accessioned by the museum of
The Blasket Centre in
Dunquin (a heritage and cultural centre/museum honouring the unique community who lived on the remote Blasket Islands until their evacuation). During this trip, as noted in the accessioned documents, he met and was assisted by
Muiris 'Kruger' Kavanagh, publican, raconteur and prominent figure in Irish cultural history. Jo travelled throughout
Orkney,
Shetland and the west of Ireland and photographed all the British nesting seabirds at the nest. His photographic work was publicly exhibited in 2007, at
Rivington Park Gallery in
Lancashire. == Mountaineering and rock climbing ==