Posted on 02/26/2013 4:15:01 PM PST by nickcarraway
After flying the coop for three days, Sequoia, the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo's tame bald eagle, has landed. The 24-year-old bird of prey was enjoying her daily exercise Saturday at Byxbee Park when strong winds from the north suddenly appeared to upset her, said John Aikin, the zoo's executive director. Instead of returning to her handlers, she flew north and roosted in Menlo Park.
Sequoia moved to the Friendly Acres neighborhood of Redwood City on Monday. As night fell, the famished raptor finally dropped from her perch in a tree to longtime trainer John Flynn's outstretched arm.
"It's like having a kid," a jubilant Aikin said by cellphone from the scene. "You know your kid is probably going to make the right choices, but you still can't help but worry a little bit."
Sequoia is no stranger to flights of fancy. She went on the lam eight times during her tenure at the San Francisco Zoo, where she was an "ambassador" for the effort to re-establish bald eagles before joining the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo about six months ago.
"This is not to be unexpected," said Aikin, who helped train her as the director of avian conservation at the San Francisco Zoo. "It's not the first time it's happened. And I don't think it's the last."
Bald eagles are easily spooked and something as innocuous as the color of a person's coat can set them off, Aikin said. In this case, strong winds and an old injury were the likely culprits.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
“Captured”, hell - she had a good time and came home when the money ran out!
I just don’t understand why she didn’t go somewhere better than Menlo Park. They have some tasty mice in Woodside.
Ping
How did they know she was famished? I would think she stopped at Big Kahuna Burger for a tasty mouse burger.
It’s not a kid. It’s a friggin’ bird. Your useless job should be one of the first to go.
There’s a freakin zoo in Palo Alto?
I never heard of it and I’m in PA every other week.
I know there’s a PF Changs there but, they are just everywhere now...
Nonsequitor......
That’s the longest an Eagle has gone missing.
(Unless you count Nnamdi Asomugha, Dominique Rogers-Cromartie, and pretty much the entire defense this past season.)
ps... it's only visible by daylite...
I swear my neighbors heard me laugh....
There is now -- and it has one resident ... that we know of.
Looked it up and there is indeed a zoo.
Similar to Happy Hollow in San Jose but, not as big.
Rich people can’t afford a zoo I guess. /s
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