Snowy Owls on Orkney

by Tim Wootton

Tim has been watching and drawing birds since his childhood in Yorkshire. Although he works on large scale paintings, the inspiration is always observations made in the field. He was shortlisted for the 'Swarovski Young European Bird Artist of the Year' award, 1991 and was Wildscape Magazine's 'Wildlife Artist of the Year' (editor's category), 2008. He lives and works as an artist and writer in the Orkney Islands. "Working for the RSPB monitoring the breeding birds of Orkney brings me close to the varying fortunes of the islands wildlife. Here are a few field drawings made during survey work including some sketches of a snowy owl. Or snowy owls, as it turned out. I'd never seen a snowy in the wild and having received reports of a female being seen in various locations, I managed to miss it every time. It even had the audacity to flaunt itself on the island of Shapinsay; being observed sitting on a gatepost at the farm of Parkhall – where I used to live! Eventually however, I caught up with the bird sitting by a concrete strainer in a field. Except this bird wasn’t the young female which had been hanging around for several weeks, but a pure-white male. It’s a shame the two didn’t ‘bump into each other’ whilst in the county. " Eider by Tim Wootton Wheatear chick by Tim Wootton See Tim's Arctic Skuas from Orkney