Bird researchers track holidaymaker’s every move after they went home with tracking device

Bird researchers track holidaymaker’s every move to campsite, pizza restaurant and London street after they went home from Orkney Isles with tracking device that fell off oystercatcher

  • Small GPS device fell off a bird somewhere on the island of Sanday on April 7 
  • Researchers believe holidaymaker picked it up at end of May and took it home 
  • £100 reward is now being offered for return of the device which is worth £1,000 
  • ***Do YOU know the mystery holidaymaker? Email [email protected]*** 

Bird researchers have tracked a holidaymaker’s every move even to a pizza restaurant in London after they went home with a tracking device from an oystercatcher.  

The GPS device had been set up to track the bird’s flight from Dublin to Orkey but fell off somewhere on the island on Sanday. 

Researchers believe a holidaymaker then picked it up and took it home, via a campsite, a pizza restaurant and then a residential street in Ealing, west London.  

The GPS device had been set up to track the bird’s flight from Dublin to Orkey but fell off somewhere on the island on Sanday. Pictured: PhD student Steph Trapp, who says the tag fell off the bird on April 7

Do YOU know the mystery holidaymaker? 

A £100 reward is now being offered for return of the device, which is usually worth £1,000.  

The trackers, which look like plastic bricks and are powered by a solar panel, are superglued to oystercatchers so researchers can study the birds and designed to fall off in the spring. 

Professor Stu Bearhop, from the College of Life and Environment at the University of Exeter, told BBC Radio Orkney: ‘They’re really interested in how best to conserve those birds, and which habitats they need to put most effort into preserving.’

The research is being carried out by PhD student Steph Trapp, who says the tag fell off the bird on April 7.

It remained on a beach in Sanday until the end of May when it began moving again until reaching its destination in west London.  

A £100 reward is now being offered for return of the device, which is usually worth £1,000. Pictured: The device's tracking from Dublin via Orkney islands to west London

A £100 reward is now being offered for return of the device, which is usually worth £1,000. Pictured: The device’s tracking from Dublin via Orkney islands to west London

The tracker (pictured on a bird) remained on a beach in Sanday until the end of May when it began moving again until reaching its destination in west London

The tracker (pictured on a bird) remained on a beach in Sanday until the end of May when it began moving again until reaching its destination in west London

Ms Trapp said: ‘We think someone must have found the tag whilst on holiday in Sanday, and taken it down with them.’

She added that she would have done the same thing if she’d found something like the little tracker on a beach but has requested its return so it can be put on another bird. 

***Do YOU know the mystery holidaymaker? Email [email protected]***