Mystery of Orkney bird tag tracked to London is solved

Mike German picked up the plastic tag during a three-week holiday in Orkney

When a tag used to monitor oystercatchers migrating to Orkney was tracked to a residential street in west London, it sparked a nationwide appeal.

Researchers were baffled by the movements of the GPS tracker which had fallen off a bird on an island beach.

It transmitted signals from locations including a pizza restaurant, a campsite and eventually Ealing.

But now the mystery has been solved - the holidaymaker who innocently picked up the tag has come forward.

And Mike German is making arrangements to return the device to the university researchers tracking the oystercatchers.

• Orkney bird tag tracked to London home

He told BBC Radio Orkney he discovered the tracker during a three-week trip to Orkney with two friends.

"I found it near a fence post on Sanday when we spent a morning there looking round the dunes and walking across the beach," he said.

"It was a dull sort of day, but it had been very blustery the night before, so we thought we'd get some fresh air and make the most of Sanday - which is a beautiful island.

"I just suddenly saw this item, and I thought: 'Ooh, I wonder what that is'. l just thought it was something that had dropped off a boat's buoy or something. I never thought it was a tracker.

"I picked it up and put it in my pocket, then in my little bag with the shells I'd picked up from the beach."

Mr German was not aware the tag continued to transmit its location to researchers at the University of Exeter

While Mr German enjoyed the rest of their holiday, the researchers at the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Exeter were getting increasingly baffled by the behaviour of their tag, which was continuing to transmit its location.

It travelled to a campsite in Sanday, a pizza restaurant which claims to be the most northerly in the British Isles and a number of tourist attractions.

It was then tracked to Edinburgh and Heathrow airports, before coming to rest again in a residential street in Ealing.

They worked out it must have been picked up by a holidaymaker who had taken it home. But they didn't want to go directly to the house.

PhD student Steph Trapp said eventually someone came forward who had heard the story covered on BBC Radio Five Live, and offered to deliver specially printed leaflets to homes in the right area.

"After a Five Live interview, a lady got in touch with us very kindly offering to help out, because she was in the area," she said.

"So we sent her some leaflets to put through letter boxes, and really quickly my supervisor got an email from the guy who has the tag, saying that he was the one who'd picked it up.

"He's going to get it back to us."

Researchers printed these leaflets which were delivered to houses in Ealing by a volunteer

Mr German said when the leaflet came through his door, he thought "Now, where did I put that"?

"I went through my drawers and had a look, and went through all the papers on my desk, and then I saw it in my living room," he said.

"Immediately, I got hold of it and read all the way down through the leaflet, and immediately sent an email to Prof Bearhop at Exeter University.

"Then we got in contact, and he told me: 'You've been on the news, you've been on Twitter, and everybody's been trying to find out what had happened to the tag'.

"I was absolutely blown away. I couldn't believe it. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I was very, very surprised. Especially when he said: 'We have been tracking you, where you've been'."

Now, he says, he plans to return the tag to the university by Royal Mail Special delivery, so he can "track it (pun intended) and make sure it gets back to where it should be".