Social media was abuzz last week after a steppe eagle was reported missing from Groombridge.
The eagle, named Vespa, had failed to return to her home and speculation was that she could have caught a thermal and gone as far afield as Essex.
However, the bird of prey returned home safe and well after a day of freedom.
Vespa, who still has her relatively pale, juvenile plumage, was nevertheless well-camouflaged during the day she was missing, explained Daniel Clark of the UK Owl and Raptor Centre in Groombridge.
The young bird went missing last Tuesday (June 20) and lost her tracking device. Mr Clark asked locals to
keep a lookout for Vespa but not to approach her. However, he then found the eagle in a tree in Groombridge, close to where she had gone missing.
Given that the area had been extensively searched, Mr Clark suggested she might have been watching from a distance, and then returned.
“She came out when she felt she wanted to,” he told the Times.
