Hi! As the owner of the sanctuary wrote to me this morning: there is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that apparently Big Bird can fly. The bad news is that it seems, after spending thursday night at the sanctuary, friday evening she flew away with the canada geese that come over at the farm during the day. The owner was devastated and very worried about Big Bird. When she wrote me this morning, the canada geese had not returned yet and she was still hoping she might return with them. I have not heard from her again, but I'm sure she would have let me know if there was good news.

Big Bird had not returned to my workplace either, or the pond with the decoy swans. I almost can't believe she can fly. You saw in that video how slow she walked and how long it took her to walk all the way across the lawn, to me. Then, when we cornered and caught her, she didn't even flap her wings. I thought for a second that maybe somebody found the name of the sanctuary in this column and stole her last night. It wasn't clear from the e-mail I got that anyone saw her fly off, but I'm sure she would have specified that.

In the meantime, I've spoken with an environmental scientist who had seen Big Bird on the pond at the office, next to the canada geese, and he believed she's a juvenile who hatched this year and has not reached adult size yet. What a rebelious juvenile :-))) I'm sure she would know to come back to the farm, if she wanted to. I know hope is slim, but I hope the memory of the abundant food at least, would draw her back.

I'll keep you posted if there are any new developments.
Nelly