Urban Hawks

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.

Flaco was roosting in his Oak Tree roost this afternoon. For the most part he slept, but still managed to keep any eye on his surroundings.

Flaco hooted, and coughed up two pellets (which consisted of Brown Rat fur and bones) before fly out. After fly out he went directly to a Black Locust at Compost and after using just a few perches caught a Brown Rat. He took it to a dirt pile. I was late for dinner so I had to leave, but it was amazing after a few nights where we quickly lost him, on this night we got to see him hunt before 7 pm. Owl watching can be easy or hard. Sunday night, it was easy.