Vulture seeks sanctuary at the vicarage

Life's not easy for a vulture. You're not blessed with natural good looks; nobody's happy to see you. And as for the diet!

Nevertheless, Foster the vulture, who managed to escape from his keepers last Monday was enjoying his day in the sun yesterday, with the world's press dancing attendance.

The three-foot Ruppell's griffon vulture made his escape during a falconry display at Banham Zoo in Norfolk. He has spent the last six days on the wing, being sighted from Happisburgh, Norfolk to Southwold, Suffolk, 50 miles away.

On Friday, three-year-old Foster arrived in the Suffolk village of Reydon, 70 miles south of the zoo, where he spent the day flitting from rooftop to rooftop before settling his eight feet wing span in a Scots pine in the garden of the vicarage. Live television news crews and media photographers waited below.

By yesterday afternoon his keepers were becoming resigned to playing a patient game.

John Dickson, the zoo's head falconer, said they were prepared to wait as long as necessary to recapture Foster. "The question is just being patient," he said. "We must not stress the bird out."

Ann Way, 67, the owner of a neighbouring property was not so concerned about the bird's welfare: "The first I knew of it was when a chap next door but one rang and said to me, 'do you know there's a vulture on your roof?'

"I'm not very happy about it at all really. My first reaction is to get the hose out and get it off. I have four dogs including a very small chihuahua and I'm worried for them."

Her neighbours locked their pets indoors as falconers stepped up attempts to coax Foster down from the vicarage trees.

Having tried a number of tactics – including offering soft toys, his favourite snack of dead baby chicks, and even one of his "friends", another vulture called Vomit – they have so far failed to recapture him.