September 2021 Newsletter

However, if you want to spot all the breeding species of dragon and damselflies found in Orkney then Hoy is still the hotspot island of choice, though of course by September the number of species on the wing will be lower than earlier in the summer. There is currently an excellent PDF guide available on the North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme website that helps with identification and the best time of year to spot each species.

Fortunately for me, the dragonfly I’m after – the black darter - is active in September and even into October. Firstly, how cool is its name? It sounds like it means business!

One factor that helps enormously in spotting or finding dragonflies is the presence of the sun. They like warmth but this is a double-edged sword in terms of photography, as I was later to find out.

I’m making my way into the hills and haven’t gone far before I’ve already taken off a layer of clothing, such is the warmth. I’ve also taken too much kit with me, including my 500mm telephoto lens in case I get a chance encounter with an interesting bird, but now it feels heavy and I regret taking it.

Birds are around however and I couldn’t be happier for them. The sky is full of swallows, house and sand martins, circling with gaping bills, catching large quantities of flies in the air. Spring here was such a cold one and many birds struggled when they arrived on migration. This feels like the ‘good times’ for them, and they’ll shortly be off back to Africa.

What hits me as I walk up the track, thick vegetation on either side, is the colour - not the lack of it, but the complete opposite. The vibrancy is quite startling. The grasses of course have gone to seed whilst the waxy leaves of dockens have turned rusty and orange. But it’s the brightness of the many flowers still in bloom that catch my attention on my quest to find the black darters.

I sit down and take it in. Soon, I tune into not only the different species of flowers on display but the sounds too. There’s one in particular, a low humming noise. Just off the track swathes of heather are deep in purple bloom and they are covered in bees. But, amongst the patches of grass in the heather are where I see the most activity.

Bright purple flowers that look much like the spear thistle (what we think of as the Scottish thistle) have a bee on almost every head. This is knapweed, also known as hardheads which refer to the scaley-looking hard, knobbly head on which the purple flower sits. They are nectar rich and I see the ginger-coloured moss carder bees flit from flower to flower whilst the altogether larger bee, the great yellow, with its soft warm lemon-yellow hues, alights from another late flower, the devil’s bit’s scabious. Easily identified on long stalks, the head reminds me of a lollipop.

The sky is now bright blue and the air warm. It’s the middle of the day so the light is harsh, harsher than I would normally like to photograph in, but the insects are so active and it’s such a wonderful sight I don’t mind too much. Neither does the small tortoiseshell butterfly gorging itself on the bright yellow flowers.

Common blue butterflies are here too but I’m finding them a real challenge, they seem very flighty and are off at my slightest movement. I track their flight in the hope of seeing where it might land but it’s way over the dry stane dyke and far away. Its almost exclusively male common blues that I’m seeing with their cobalt blue wings - the female is brown above with smudges of the same cobalt.

Finally, I see what I’m after and after closer inspection there are black darters everywhere - and not really where I expected. They’re not in vegetation but clearly positioning themselves on outcrops of granite rock. I place my hand on one of the rocks and I understand why they are there. The warmth radiates into my hand.

The black darter is, as you might expect from the name, black. This is true for the male at least but the female is a wonderful amber colour. They too are very active and the individuals flying around are clearly interested in those on the rocks. I’m annoyed at first that they have disturbed those I’ve slowly crept up on with my macro lens, but I had forgotten something I learned years ago. Both dragonflies and damselflies often fly straight back to where they took off, and so is the case.

I want to get some images that really show the detail of the massive compound eyes that they use so effectively for hunting. The image produced isn’t as detailed as ours but they are extremely sensitive to motion, and it isn’t long before I see the results of this ‘super-power’.

I’m using a 90mm macro lens plus extension tubes so I can produce a highly magnified image, but this means I’m focusing physically very closely to the dragonfly. Some insects don’t like this kind of intrusion so it pays to work slowly. I’ve gradually moved closer, trying desperately to keep the compound eye in focus when it disappears altogether. I bite my lip at disturbing it but it then returns to the exact same spot from where it took off. It’s then, in minute detail, that I see it has returned with prey and is busy chomping down on a daddy long-legs. In what seemed like a matter of seconds it had seen the daddy long-legs whilst on the rock, caught it mid-air and returned. Incredible!

Such life in such a small area, such big adventures in a tiny world.

Find out more about Raymond’s work via his official website. You can also find him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

During my architectural studies in Edinburgh, I won the RIAS Photography Award three times. However, my photography really took a step forward when I was asked to write and illustrate the RIAS Architectural Guide to Orkney. Over the summer of 1989 I visited all of Orkney’s listed buildings. Before today’s RoRo ferries, I travelled with my bike on the foredeck of the Golden Mariana as she made her daytrips to the North Isles. Each island turned out to be about the perfect size for a day’s cycle tour.

The discipline of just 36 shots on a roll of film to record 20-25 buildings and no idea of the results till the prints came back from Edinburgh weeks later, seems unimaginable now. It was an amazing opportunity to become acquainted with Orkney’s rich built history. I’ve been privileged to work on several prominent buildings, such as Skaill House, Ness Battery, the Hall of Clestrain, Balfour Castle and The Storehouse as well as the Townscape Heritage Initiative restoration projects for Kirkwall and Stromness town centres.

Nowadays I use a Nikon digital SLR and (increasingly) my phone to record images for work and pleasure. I’ve taken a lot of photos in Norway, Venice and - just recently - in Iceland, but it is hard to better Orkney for photography. I’ve recently moved from Kirkwall to Deerness, close to the sea. The ever-changing light, Orkney’s big skies and the colours in the landscape make for great images. Like in Venice, the ‘golden hour’ seems to last just that bit longer. I’ve also taken lots of pictures of the St Magnus International Festival and the chance to meet amazing artists has been fabulous.

Le Corbusier described architecture as “the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light” and I hope that my photography is capturing that play of light.