Last weekend saw some unusual action on Papa Westray. The Great Auk flew in. This was quite remarkable for the 33" high bird is flightless and the last one in Britain was shot exactly 200 years ago on ... Papa Westray.
The story appears on the Orkney News Today website and makes good reading - for it includes references to the world's shortest scheduled air-service, a stuffed passenger sitting with the pilot, a London newspaper reporter being taken in and much fun experienced. The serious side is that a complete species - the first to be given the then new term of 'penguin' - was eliminated. Here on Papa Westray (below) in 1813 and finally the last known Great Auk on Earth was shot in 1844, off an Icelandic island.
Scottish Islands Explorer - hopes never to become extinct
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