The Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Flaco roosted in the same American Elm he’s been using for the last few days. Its understory is open and without leaves, so as he wakes up, rather than flying to another tree he has been branching within the tree. I’ve seen White-footed Mice below the tree and he seem to be looking for them before he leaves the tree.

Tonight, at fly out he went to the roof of the Recreation Center and then flew off to the northeast. We searched for about a half hour and came up empty, but then found him in plain sight on a backstop. He moved around the backstop and one of the adjacent infields, briefly perching in a London Plane tree. But for most part he didn’t move around very much. It was hot and you see the gular fluttering after even the briefest flight.

The released Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Flaco, roosted in the same tree as last night, but used a different perch. He was hot and would gular flutter every so often. His roost tree is an American Elm and it has a number of open branches in the center. It is almost like the underside of an umbrella, and before flying out, he explored a number of branches. It seemed as though he was getting vantage points to see the eastern half of the North Meadow, and the pickleball games at the Recreation Center.

After flyout, he made a stop in a tree overlooking the western half of the North Meadow, before going to backstops and spending a great deal of time on the ground. Sometimes it was in the grass but most of time he was in the infield sand. He did a silly sand bath at one point, which reminded us of similar behavior from the 2021 Snowy Owl. As he did last night, Flaco used may of the same perches as the Snowy Owl had used.

Thanks to some good detective work by David Lei, Flaco’s new roosting site was found a bit south of the where he had been roosting. He hooted softly before fly out about five or six times, something I hadn’t heard in weeks. He didn’t catch any prey while we watched him hunt, but he took us all around the western section of the North Meadow. It was hot and after Flaco flew, as he settled down you could see him gular fluttering to cool off.

Flaco used many of the perches the Snowy Owl used in 2021, and was on the ground in the exact same location the snowy used its first day in the park. This evening brought back so many great memories of watching the Snowy Owl. Go Bubos!

On Wednesday evening, a few of us got some great looks at Flaco as he flew around landing on dumpsters, a concrete pipe, and various trees and perches including a few on the ground. But most surprising was his jumping into a puddle and taking a drink. This was the first time I had seen him in water.

Flaco had a hard time with all of the illegal fireworks both in and around the park on the Fourth of July. He settled down a bit as the night went on, but didn’t really hunt. Hopefully, he did better once the park was closed and the fireworks died down.