Holidaying in Scotland’s remote Orkney Islands, a family have been tracked back to their home in London via a bird tag

Holidaying in Scotland’s remote Orkney Islands, a family have been tracked back to their home in London via a bird tag found on one of Orkney’s beaches, as reported by itv.com.

The tracking device is one of 32 which were attached to birds in County Dublin for a winter project carried out by the local council. It has been at the family’s home in Ealing, London since June 3.

It is thought that the tag fell off the migrating oystercatcher bird during breeding and remained on the beach where it fell. The tracker accompanied the family to their campsite in Orkney and dined out at a pizzeria before travelling south. It has visited several tourist spots on the way and now resides on a street in the London borough of Ealing.

PhD student Steph Trapp has valued the tags at ‘around £1,000 each’. A holiday souvenir a little more expensive than a t-shirt or a stick of rock! Trapp told itv.com that the high price of the trackers limits the number of birds they can affordably be attached to, ‘and the amount of data we can collect’.

The tag’s location has been narrowed down to two or three possible houses; their location is accurate down to a few metres.

It is important that Steph gets the tag back so that she can continue her research into ‘giving birds proper protection’.

The aim of tagging is to identity the most important areas for the birds so they can live in the safest environment possible. These places tend to be coastal habits rather than urban parks and sports pitches.

Anyone who returns the tag will receive a reward of £100 in vouchers of their choosing.

Got the tracker? Email your details to s.bearhop@exeter.ac.uk

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