High-flying Copper enjoys an excellent adventure

With a family who adore her and a home near outstanding countryside in Yorkshire, Copper seemed to have it all.

But it just was not enough for the four-month-old kestrel who was eager to spread her wings.

The young bird of prey sparked an extensive search when she took flight from her training ground near Penistone only to turn up relatively unscathed several days later – more than 65 miles away in Liverpool.

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“She must have wanted a night out in Liverpool and made it a weekender,” said her owner, Sarah Buckley.

What started off as an apparently uneventful training session quickly turned into an epic search spanning some 400 miles when Copper disappeared.

“We were hoping to do some kite training but there wasn’t enough wind so we ended up doing a normal training session,” said Miss Buckley, who runs Moorland Falconry with her fiancé Stephen Barraclough, near Penistone.

“She had done one flight from me to Stephen absolutely perfectly. She had just been weighed and was 252 grams, which is perfect for her.

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“The weather conditions were really good – there was no wind but it was a nice warm evening for this time of year so there were no issues with flying at all.

“She was probably two metres away and was flying straight towards me when she shot up in the air.”

Copper had spied a wild kestrel which had flown out of a nearby tree and decided to head off to “play”.

“They were playing around in the air, twisting and turning, play-fighting,” said Miss Buckley.

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“The problem was that Copper did not realise what was happening. She thought it was fun but the wild kestrel was actually cross with her because she was in its territory and wanted her out of its territory which is a common thing with kestrels.

“Copper is an imprint which means she does not recognise herself as a bird. She recognises me and Stephen as her parents and comes to us for food as we have hand-fed her from when she was 20 days old. She is not like a wild kestrel who knows how to hunt because we have fed her and taught her how to hover in the air and turn when she is flying.”

The kestrels eventually parted company leaving the couple on the ground unsure which was which but logic led them to wait by a tree near the flying area Copper usually used. However they were left dismayed when the wild bird eventually flew out.

Several fraught hours of searching later, Mr Barraclough thought he had located Copper in a tree in some formal gardens which he could not get into. He tried to call her down from outside but to no avail.

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“Unless a bird is an owl or it’s disturbed by something birds do not fly,” said Miss Buckley. “We had to make the decision to leave her there because she was not moving.”

But it seemed Copper had other ideas and had managed once again to give her despairing owners the slip by the time they returned to the spot the following morning. What followed was a fraught weekend spent searching for the kestrel covering some 400 miles by foot and car.

So it was more than a welcome relief when the couple received a call on Monday from the Independent Bird Register to say that Copper had been found safe and well in Liverpool.

Miss Buckley, 35, said: “Stephen was told that an RSPCA officer in Liverpool had found her and taken her to a vet in Alder Hey. All the vets and nursing staff fell in love with her because she is so tame because she is an imprint and prefers to be with people.”

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Copper’s expedition and apparent ability to fend for herself have left her owners baffled.

Miss Buckley, a teacher, said: “She had dropped 30 grams in weight because she does not know how to hunt. We have no idea how she survived; it is absolutely phenomenal. Occasionally she might pick up a bug that’s on the grass and she has been known to eat a daddy-long-legs but that’s not enough to keep a kestrel alive for 72 hours so we don’t know how she managed it. Everyone we have spoken to so far has never known a kestrel to fly that far.

“Kestrels are very territorial so why on earth she has flown that far we do not know. We don’t know if she has gone across the Pennines or gone north and followed the M62 or whether she followed another bird.

“Had it been this weekend coming, with frost and a drop in temperature she would not have survived.

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“Copper has the heart of a lion. She is so brave; nothing fazes her.”

Having been reunited with her owners Copper has been reinstated in her Yorkshire home where she has spent the last few days being fed and built up.

But her little jaunt has not been entirely without retribution – however unintentional. Owing to the poor weather of the past few days, the kestrel has been grounded.

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