Tractor-hating eagle goes on two-day 'flight of fancy'

Archie does not land back at his home until nearby tractors have "well and truly disappeared"

A bald eagle who hates tractors took off on a two-day "flight of fancy" to avoid one near his home at a wildlife sanctuary in Cornwall, staff have said.

Archie flew off on Monday during a display at Paradise Park in Hayle after staff carrying out a check for the vehicles "missed one".

They said he "invariably" comes back "when he is ready" but retrieved him on Wednesday because of weather forecasts.

The 32-year-old eagle was "now back safe and sound", the park said.

David Woolcock, a curator at the wildlife sanctuary, said staff did not know why Archie hated tractors but he had "always loathed them" since arriving in 1998, and "absolutely will not land back in the arena until it has well and truly disappeared".

Staff use GPS tracking to see where Archie has flown

He said: "Every day before we fly Archie, we scour the surrounding fields from our flying platforms to ensure that there are no tractors in the fields surrounding our flying arena. On Monday, we missed one."

Staff kept track of him via a GPS transmitter clipped to him, and saw he "was not so much lost but on more of a sleepover" during his time away.

He roosted in a tree at nearby St Michael's Hospital on Monday night.

Archie flew down to an estuary near Lelant Saltings railways station, about 0.6 miles (1km), away on Tuesday before they made the "prudent" choice to go and get him because of the "atrocious weather forecast for Thursday", Mr Woolcock said.

Previous tracking of flights have shown Archie flying a few miles around the area.