A lost emu has been reunited with his owner and girlfriend.

The bird, nicknamed Eric, was found wandering up a farm driveway in Kirtling near Newmarket, Suffolk. Frankie Dettori rushed to the scene, believing it was his pet. But on arrival the Italian jockey realised it was too small to be his bird.

Now the RSPCA has said the owner, who lived nearby, has come forward. The emu’s real name is Monty and he has a girlfriend called Mathilda who was pining for him, the charity said.

Buyer sought for watercolour

An 18th-century watercolour that is the first eyewitness representation of Niagara Falls could be exported if a UK buyer cannot be found to pay more than £150,000 for it.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey has imposed a temporary ban on the export of the 1762 artwork by Captain Thomas Davies, the first accurate image of the world-famous landscape, to give time for a UK buyer to match the £151,800 asking price and keep it here.

Davies was a highly regarded artist and collector, and the first military artist to record Niagara Falls, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said.

Group of rare birds Siberia bound

A group of one of the world’s rarest birds, which were hand-reared by experts, have returned to breed in Siberia, conservationists said.

The spoon-billed sandpipers were taken into captivity as eggs and raised close to their tundra home by experts from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) until they fledged, as part of efforts in the last few years to boost their tiny population.

Now five of the tiny birds, named after their unusually shaped bills, have returned from southeast Asia, where they flew after fledging, making a 10,000-mile round-trip back to their Russian breeding grounds.

Beer burglars just take caps

Police in western Germany are looking for thieves who broke into a shop selling alcohol and stole the caps off 1,200 bottles of beer – presumably to collect points for a prize contest – yet left the beer itself untouched.

Essen police said the thieves broke into the shop in Muelheim an der Ruhr and stole the caps from the popular Koenig Pilsner. They kept those with points towards prizes such as Bose speakers or a Black & Decker cordless drill, left dozens of “good luck try again” caps on the ground and did not drink a single beer.

Given the number of caps removed, police said they assume that more than one person was involved in the operation. So far they have no suspects.

‘Gag law’ could lead to €30,000 fine

Spanish police are looking to apply a much-criticised new Public Security Law – known as the “gag law” – to heavily fine a woman who posted on social media a photograph of a police car parked in a disabled parking space, along with critical remarks.

Fermin Bonet, police inspector in the southeastern town of Petrer, said the publication on July 27 offended the officers’ work and merits a sanction. The law allows for the woman to be fined between €600 and €30,000 for use of unauthorised police images. The regional interior ministry office will decide whether to impose a fine or not. Rights groups say the law curtails free assembly and expression.