CLEO the wayward falcon is back on pest patrol -- thanks to an eagle-eyed reader.

Last Friday's edition of your Journal related how a three-year-old Saker Peregrine, worth around £600, took a break from its role of scaring gulls and crows on an Astley landfill tip and disappeared in pursuit of a microlight aircraft.

Falconer Darren Leigh was horrified when Cleo shot off after the microlight then disappeared from view last Thursday.

He was inundated with phone calls from helpful readers who saw our story about his quest to get her back. But following up their leads hadn't reunited him with his queen of the skies.

Then he struck success -- thanks to the power of the Journal's sister paper, the Bolton Evening News, which also ran the story.

Cleo turned up on another landfill site at Clifton, near Swinton -- about seven miles in a straight line from the Astley site.

The majestic hawk, with a 4'6" wingspan, was reunited with handler Darren after a Clifton tip worker noticed the story about Cleo's disappearing act as he scanned the columns of an old copy of the BEN which had arrived in a consignment of waste.

Five days after she disappeared Cleo was back on duty on the Astley tip off Lower Green Lane.

Delighted Darren, a falconer with 25 years' experience, said: "I'm really happy to have her back.

"She is in fine feather. Apparently tip workers had seen her killing vermin on the site at Clifton but only when someone picked up an old copy of the Bolton Evening News did they realise where she had come from.

"I had lost radio contact with her because of the terrain we were working on at Astley but it seems as if she had straight-lined to Clifton.

"I can't thank the Journal staff enough for playing a big part in getting Cleo back. Microlights are now definitely a protected species."