'Lucky' to be alive!
A Snowy owl who went AWOL for two weeks is safely back in her love nest. Four-year-old Lucky winged it from Birdland at Bourton-on-the-Water and evaded all attempts at recapture.
She made her bid for freedom after heavy snow caved in the aviary roof - leaving two love-lorn mates behind.
Keepers, who feared she wouldn't survive in the wild, tried in vain to net her.
But now the flighty bird's finally been cornered and brought home.
Gordon Bull, who runs Donnington Trout Farm, spotted Lucky sitting on a wall at Swell Wold Farm, near Stow, yesterday.
He said: "I was driving to work and there she was. My immediate reaction was it was my neighbour Phil Janka's bird, but he told me it was from
Birdland.
"Phil came along with a net, I kept its attention and he crept up behind it and whisked the net over."
Birdland manager Simon Blackwell said: "We'd been giving Lucky the chance to choose between two mates - obviously she wasn't interested at all and just flew away.
"Weight of snow had ripped the netted roof and she flew out.
"She's quite a big bird, with about a three-and-a-half feet wing span, but not many people would know what kind she was.
"We had a call after a few days from a farm at Clapton-on-the-Hill and waited until night-time to lamp her as she's too strong during the day. But she got away.
"A farmer near Huntsmans Quarries called on Saturday and my headkeeper Dennis Vrettos and assistant Robert Coleman went out on quad bikes. They hared across muddy fields for about three hours but she flew away.
"We also had a call saying she was at Nether Swell Manor, but she escaped again. Then Gordon and Phil turned up with her."
Lucky only arrived at
Birdland four months ago from a German zoo.
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