George (The Cockatoo) made his great escape today while Beth was cleaning his cage outside. We couldn't see or hear him anywhere - and then Beth saw him in a tree next door.

Carrying a relative short-for-the-task ladder (9 feet) we attempt to coax him down. Instead, he flies back home and into his cage!

But then, changes his mind and goes up to our roof. (We've got a 2-story house.)
So he was left alone on the roof - a BIG WHITE TARGET for the local hawks - two mated pairs are red tails are just a couple hundred yards away in the wetlands.

We can't see the top of the roof from our yard, so we sat down next to the cage to wait.

A short time later, Beth hears a plaintiff cry and steers my far less-than-stellar hearing to a tree in the front yard. While I talk nice to him, Beth gets the ladder and I climb up, eventually pulling his little twig of a branch close to me.

He's terrified.
His breathing is so loud that even I could hear it.

We offer encouragement and soft talk while backing down the ladder.
George has taken 3 or 4 of these excursions over the decades.

Fortunately, they've all ended well.