I arrived after Flaco’s fly out. He had a bit of an adventure. Some young men, who just happened to be walking by before he flew out ended up chasing after him to get cell phone pictures. A few of the regulars, spoke to them, but Flaco wisely hid for about half an hour.

Flaco has attracted a number of inexperienced birders. When watching owls or any bird for that matter, you want to be careful about how you follow them. There is an art to following a bird. When birds move to a new location, they need to settle down and do an assessment of their new location. After a brief amount of time, you look at their behavior. If you see them alert and nervous, you keep your distance. If they look relaxed, you can slowly approach them. However, if you rush after them, especially if they are perched in a low branch or have gone to the ground, they will just keep going further away.

So, if you’re a new or inexperienced birder, and visiting Flaco, don’t rush after him to get a cell phone picture. You’ll only frighten him. There are usually a few folks who have experience watching Flaco at each fly out. Figure out who they are and follow their lead.

Once Flaco settled down, he stayed close to his roost tree. The farthest he got was a visit to a meadow 200 yards from his roost tree. Usually he goes much further, so this was surprising. But I suspect he learns a lot about the nearby prey while roosting during the day and knows where to look close to home at night.

Flaco returned to some of his old hunts on Monday. He was harassed in the late evening by a Cooper’s Hawk and hooted in response. He then went to many of the spots he has used in the past, including many that the Snowy Owl had used a few years ago. He caught one rat and took his time eating it.

Flaco had been harassed by a Red-tailed Hawk during the day on Sunday. At one point the hawk hit him. After fly out, after some troubles finding him, he ended up being in a nearby tree. He kept looking west and was concentrating on something.

We then lost track of him, much earlier than we normally do. I suspect that rather than going hunting, Flaco was interested in finding the Red-tailed Hawk.

Fall migration has started, and with the fires in Canada, seems to have started earlier. Red-tailed Hawks and Cooper’s Hawks are already moving through, and we should expect to see Flaco interacting with them throughout the fall.

Saturday night with Flaco was mostly confined to “his meadow”. It’s a triangle of a lawn, that is locked from dusk to dawn and is a perfect are to hunt in. He took his time and was in no rush to eat dinner. After an hour, he caught a rat and ate it.

For a few days, Flaco had been keeping his right, lower eyelid closed often. As of Monday evening, the issue seems to have resolved.

On Thursday night, Flaco was only tracked to one tree before we lost track of him. A group of owl watchers searched for him, but he couldn’t be relocated. This happens when watching owls. You have easy nights and frustrating nights.

On Wednesday, Flaco flew out calmly and then basically did very little until the park closed at 1 am. He flew to a number of trees in the locked meadow he’s been using and that was it. We’ve had nights like this before so it wasn’t unusual, but it was a bit dull.

The area he’s hunting in now has a feral cat. My reaction to seeing the cat was that while it seemed to be getting plenty to eat, it shouldn’t be in the park and should be rescued. Seeing the cat made me wonder why and how public sentiment around Flaco became that he should be allowed to stay free.