Visitors over the summer have been asking us how Lincoln, our Bald Eagle, is enjoying his summer holidays, so we asked his best friend Rufus for an update.
In June, we took the decision to allow Lincoln to be reunited with Rufus after almost a year apart. Rufus had worked closely with Lincoln for several years before leaving Suffolk Owl Sanctuary to pursue another line of work. During this time, Rufus built a strong relationship with one of our more powerful birds, and gained his trust. Whilst Lincoln would tolerate our other staff, it was evident that Rufus was his favourite person, and Lincoln would refuse to work for any of our other staff.
When Rufus left us to pursue a new career path, Lincoln fell into what can only be described as depression, and despite our best efforts, his mood swings became more unpredictable and dangerous to our staff.
Rufus offered to house Lincoln over the summer and build up his fitness again to enable free flight, so in June Lincoln moved into a luxury aviary built by Rufus in his garden. Lincoln settled right in and was instantly at ease in these unfamiliar surroundings.
After a few weeks to settle in, Rufus started taking Lincoln out into the countryside where he has permission to fly. To start off with, he just carried Lincoln around on the fist, getting him used to the environment, and letting the local birds suss out if this Eagle was a threat. The first time Rufus let Lincoln fly free, he only attempted a short flat flight across a field margin, but it was enough to show that Lincoln wanted to work with him.
Unfortunately, nature often throws a spanner in the works! Towards the end of the breeding season (late summer), most birds of prey will begin their moult. In wild birds, they usually only replace 2 or 3 feathers on each wing or in the tail each season, as growing feathers is costly and during this time they must still be able to hunt. However, in captive birds, when they are well fed, they frequently drop multiple feathers, leaving them aerodynamically compromised.
Lincoln did just this!
Rufus explained that a combination of Lincoln losing most of his fight feathers and the weather not being ideal for flying an eagle has meant that he’s concentrating on building his confidence and fitness through short bouts of low level flying, rather than the spectacular flights to a drone or kite that Lincoln was performing last year, Given time, we have every confidence that Lincoln will be soaring across the Suffolk skies again, and want to give our thanks once again to Rufus for stepping in to care for his wellbeing.
In the meantime, Lincoln is enjoying the quiet life and appears to have been chatting to our Meerkats about the virtues of sunbathing, something he never did whilst living at SOS!
