Bald eagle lives the high life
Found the news in the nets. Luckily no one hurt from this event.. sometimes for large bird of prey, it is dangerous if they get lost… dangerous not because ‘they are’ but most of the time, the ‘environment’ that make them ‘dangerous’
Bald eagle lives the high life
WOTAN the American Bald Eagle has been living the high life.
The bird, a star attraction at the Cotswold Falconry Centre at Batsford, near Moreton, spent a couple of nights at a luxury hotel near Bristol last week after soaring too high during a display.
Head falconer Mike Hope said the 10-year-old eagle, was “thermalling” and just went up, up and away until he was a tiny speck in the distance.
Wotan eventually came down to earth 45 miles away at the Berwick Lodge Hotel, Bristol, where guests were amazed to see him land in the hotel’s woodland grounds.
When India, the 10-year-old daughter of hotel owner Sarah Arikan, went to take some photos of the bird of prey, he tried to land on her arm, terrifying the girl and scratching her arm.
Eventually, after trying to get help from the RSPB, hotel staff managed to contact local bird trainer Lloyd Buck, who was able to lure Wotan down with some of the hotel’s finest lamb steak before securing him.
It was then that Wotan, who was ringed, was identified as belonging to the Cotswold Falconry Centre and Mike was contacted. He went to get his bird back last Tuesday.
“You are always relieved when they come back. The last time he went down that way was four years ago when he was scared off by military helicopters,” said Mike. “He ended up at the ski slope at Gloucester.”
Wotan, who was born at Hanover Zoo and arrived at the falconry centre eight years ago, has a six foot wingspan. There are about a dozen captive bred bald eagles in the UK.
The day after his latest adventure, Wotan was back at work visiting children at Blockley Primary School.
(source: www.cotswoldjournal.co.uk )