Keepers thank the public for the safe return of a missing bald eagle

Cremorne, a 13-year-old bald eagle, was taking part in her daily exercise with keepers at Wild Zoological Park in Halfpenny Green, on Friday when she became spooked by crows and flew off course.

The keepers launched into action, tracking the bird on foot and calling on social media for people to keep an eye out for the massive bird of prey.

Alice Spark, head keeper at Wild Zoological Park said: “She did have a GPS tag, which we were tracking for a while but the battery must have been faulty because it died in a couple of hours – that’s in the bin now!

“We weren’t too worried, we were pretty certain she wouldn’t go too far. It was just a case of keeping an eye on her, waiting for her to be somewhere it would be easy to retrieve her from.”

The public reported several sightings to the zoo, including one over the M54 services in Shifnal.

Then on Tuesday, a member of the public reported the magnificent bird had been seen perching on St Cuthburt’s Church in Donington, near Albrighton.

Keepers rushed to the church, around seven miles from the zoo (as the eagle flies), where Cremorne was still waiting.

“As soon as she saw us she came straight down,” Alice added, “She seemed really happy to see us.

“We were really relieved and just so grateful for everyone’s help.”

“We had so much help from so many people and we’re all so thankful.”

The initial post to Facebook was shared over two thousand times, with many people offering to take to the streets to search for the bird.

News of Cremorne's return was celebrated online, with commenters expressing their relief at the ‘brilliant’ news.