British Birders Chartered Private Flights to See Europe’s First Red-winged Blackbird
The bird, a female, was reported on a remote Scottish island this weekend, inspiring "twitchers" throughout the UK to go on the chase of their lives.
In northeastern Scotland, toward thetip of theOrkney archipelago that juts into theNorth Sea, the airport on North Ronaldsay Islandhas been hopping with activity the last few days. Around the same latitude as central Norway, the small island has seen more than 15 airplanes land on itsrunway, as well as boats and ferries carrying anxioustravelers, according to .What have these visitorscome so farto see? Alone female Red-winged Blackbird.
While common throughout the United States andCanada, aRed-winged Blackbirdhas never been spottedin the UK—or all of Europe,for that matter.As such, the bird has been drawing droves of excited "twitchers,"the British term for an especially dedicated birder,since it was spotted Saturday by Simon Davies, the principal assistant warden at the local bird observatory. Some of these birders have gone so far as tocharter private planes,while others are driving or taking trains for up to 12 hoursbefore loading onto theferries for the remainder of the trip.
“I tweeted about the news and it went crazy, we had nine planes to the island on Sunday and four or five today,” . “It’s incredibly exciting and top twitchers like to see these very rare birds for themselves and are willing to pay a lot of money to do so.”
No one is sure how the blackbirdmade it to the remote island, but there are twolikelytheories: Thebird couldhave hitchhiked on a transatlantic ship, or,while less plausible, it could have gotten caught up in a hecticstorm and rodethe jet stream to northern Scotland, aresearcher with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds toldThe Guardian. Somewhat recently a North American Hermit Thrush has also been spotted in the Scottish Shetland Islands, which the RSPB says gives more credibility to the idea that the blackbird is wild.
How much longer the female Red-winged Blackbird will choose to stick around is impossible to say,but one thing is certain: As long as thestriped passerine decides to make North Ronaldsay Island its home, the airport and those ferries will remain busier than normal.