Falconers wait to catch sleepy vulture

A vulture was today enjoying its sixth day of freedom as zoo staff made fresh attempts at recapture.

Foster, a three-year-old vulture which escaped from Banham Zoo near Diss, Norfolk, on Monday was this morning asleep in a Scots pine tree in the garden of a vicarage in Reydon, Suffolk.

Falconers were waiting at the foot of the tree with food and a net and hoping to entice the bird down when it woke up.

Foster, who is worth about £1,000, flew away while taking part in a falconry display at the zoo.

He reappeared on Wednesday sitting on a church tower in Happisburgh, Norfolk before flying south to the Suffolk seaside resort of Southwold.

Yesterday Foster flew the short distance to nearby Reydon, where he spent the day flitting between rooftops and trees.

Falconers tried all they knew to entice him back with no success.

They tried to entice him down with another vulture called Vomit, attempted to hose him in order to make his body wet and heavy and even threw a soft toy on to a roof where he was sitting in the hope that he would fly down.

John Dickson, the falconer heading the attempts to recapture Foster, said: ‘‘I’m confident that we will get him back today. I’ve never lost a bird yet and I don’t intend to start now.

’’We were so close to getting him a number of times yesterday and we’ll continue to try today.’’

Zoo managers hope publicity about Foster’s exploits will attract large crowds to the zoo over the weekend.

falconry show featuring the vultures who normally fly with Foster is due to take place at the zoo later today.