Over the last few days, Flaco’s new habits have begun to come into view. He seems to now be roosting, but not always in the same place, in the southern end of the “Alphabet” in the East Village. He then seems to be flying out and staking his claim to tall buildings around Corlears Hook Park.

After this it’s unclear what he’s doing. Tonight he went to the north end of the Lower East Side, hooted on two perches on a high building before diving down. He may have or may not have ended up in Hamilton Fish Park. It’s unclear where he is hunting.

Flaco is a feral Eurasian Eagle-Owl, who was released by vandal(s) in February. He does not belong in Manhattan. It’s been fascinating to see him adjust so quickly to life outside of the zoo, but he just isn’t equipped to survive on the rodenticide laden streets of New York. While it was lucky he stayed in Central Park for as long as he did, it was only a matter of time that he would move on.

He’s free because the Wildlife Conservation Society lost control of the narrative to a selfish self-promoting social media influencer. The free Flaco movement wasn’t and isn’t about Flaco’s well being. It’s a way of growing social media followers and getting likes.

The last time I saw Flaco was on Halloween night. He hasn’t been spotted in Central Park in November. A number of folks have looked for him both during the day and at night without success.

I hope he’s well and he turns up soon.

Update 11/6/23: Flaco was found on November 6th in a small park in the “Alphabet”. While it’s a relief that he’s been found, it will be interesting to see how he does downtown.

Monday and Tuesday nights were both similar, with Flaco quickly disappearing to the east after fly out.

On Monday night the pre-fly out activity was fairly normal with stretching and hooting. At fly out it was a quick set of perches with a small amount of hooting from Green Bench, the West Drive and Nuttery’s Battery (in a tree just north of the one he normally uses). Then he dropped down going south east and was quickly out of sight.

On Tuesday, the pre-fly out activity was interesting as Flaco stared and stared to the south. He had his eye on something. He never hooted and seemed really fixated on something to the south. At fly out he went quickly to a Black Locust at the compost heap, and then went east. He couldn’t be relocated.

It was an interesting weekend with Flaco.

Saturday as unseasonably warm and it brought out lots of runners and bikers. This brought out lots of folks who stopped to see Flaco. It was hot enough that Flaco needed to do some gular fluttering.

On Sunday, it was rainy and cold. As Flaco has done on previous days with bad weather, he flew out early, went north to trees overlooking the construction site, but then went to Nutter’s Battery for a few minutes. But he quickly made his way back to the compost heap and started to hunt. He even chased an American Woodcock!

I needed to leave to cook dinner, but I returned after a few hours. While I was gone, he caught a Brown Rat and ate it. I arrived after he was done eating. He perched on various around the construction site. After a week where it almost impossible to track him, it was nice to be able to watch him until late in the evening.

I caught up with Flaco in the late afternoon on Thursday. He coughed up a pellet and did some hooting.

He’s attracting a crowd, who instead of finding a safe vantage point on either side of the road, have begun standing in the middle of the bike lane. If folks don’t begin to use some common sense, it’s only a matter of time before there is an accident.

Flaco was back on what had been a fairly normal schedule. He went from his roost tree, to a few trees before going to the construction site and then to Nuttery’s Battery. We lost track of him after that. However, we got to see and hear him for long time before he gave us the slip.