Lonely Albatross :-(

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Black-browed albatrosses normally live in the Falkland Islands

A lovesick albatross has spent the last 40 years unsuccessfully

looking for romance in Scotland, 8,000 miles away from his natural

breeding grounds.

The lonely bird, dubbed Albert, is thought to have first arrived in

Scotland after being blown off course in the South Atlantic in 1967.

 

For the past four decades he has been engaged in a futile attempt to

woo gannets on several remote islands.

 

But experts said Albert had no prospect of finding a mate so far from

home.

 

Albert was first seen by bird watchers flying over the Firth of Forth

just days before Celtic won the European Cup in 1967. The giant bird

was seen desperately trying to mate with two-foot high gannets.

 

His seven-foot wingspan later took him north to Shetland, where he

continued searching in vain for a mate.

 

Female company

 

Albert, a black-browed albatross, has spent the last three years on

Sula Sgeir, a tiny Atlantic rock between the Outer Hebrides and

Shetland.

 

Experts said Albert faced the prospect of remaining a bachelor for

his natural lifespan of 70 years as he had no chance of finding

female company so far from his natural home in southern Argentina and

the Falkland Islands.

 

Graeme Madge, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds,

said: " The bird has never been spotted on different colonies at the

same time therefore it is almost certainly the same one which has

been seen over the last 40 years.

 

 

Albert has spent the last three years on Sula Sgeir

 

" Although he has had no luck with love, the fact the bird has been

flying around the northern hemisphere since the 1960s has probably

kept him alive.

 

" Albert is at least 47 years old. The average Black-browed albatross

lives for up to seventy years and he can well surpass that. "

 

Although they are the most widespread and common albatross, the black-

browed species is on the endangered list primarily due to fishing.

 

The birds follow fishing boats and get caught on hooks when trying to

steal an easy meal.

 

The species generally breed around the Cape Horn area, on the

southern tip of South America and the Falkland Islands.