Panic ensues along North Norfolk coast as immature EGYPTIAN VULTURE flys in off the sea at Cley

A third-year Egyptian Vulture that escaped from a private raptor breeding centre in Wales on 25 September created pandemonium yesterday after it was watched flying in off the sea at Cley NWT (North Norfolk). The bird followed the coastline along and was quickly intercepted over Blakeney, Stiffkey, Holkham Park and Burnham Norton before it eventually made landfall in a field near Burnham Thorpe. Sharp-eyed observers Richard Millington and Mark Golley almost immediately realised all was not right with the ''under-carriage'' as it soared around with 2 Marsh Harriers and it soon became apparent that it was bearing a bell and metal rings.


It then transpired that the same bird had been present on The Lizard at St Keverne (Cornwall) for at least two days and had presumably got caught up in the deep Atlantic depression that tracked eastwards across the country and had somehow been swept with the tightening isobars to Norfolk.

The bird's owners are keen to recapture it so any updates on its location will be welcomed