Tonight, was like many nights recently. A nice calm fly out, a visit to construction and then an extended stop at Nutter’s Battery hooting. Unlike previous nights, I did get to see Flaco early enough that I got to see his full visit to the construction site.
Sunday night, I arrived after fly out to find Flaco inside the unfinished building at the Meer. He was in the northern section, but flew out quickly. He hooted briefly from Nutter’s Battery, but then made a pass around the construction site. We went looking for him but couldn’t find him and returned to the construction site. I decided to make one last look for him, and found him in one of his favorite trees. He stayed there but after about an hour I lost him. A park truck came with recyclables and that flushed him from near where he had been perching. He then flew to the safety of one of the Black Locusts, sneezed a few times and then hooted. By that time, it was almost midnight, so I went home.
On Saturday Night, I arrived late in the evening to find Flaco hooting in a tree near Nuttery’s Battery. He hooted and hooted with only short breaks until 11 pm. He flew off and I only saw him again for a few seconds in the Meer construction site.
Flaco has resumed his habit of “bringing food to bed”. Today, I found him eating a Brown Rat that he had caught the night before around 4:30 pm. He only ate part of it before taking a break. A young Red-tailed Hawk who came into his roosting tree may have been the reason for the interruption. It started to rain, and I left, but he still had a good portion of the rat still left to be eaten.
After days of rain, and a few attempts to find Flaco in the evening when their were breaks in the rain, it was nice to see him on Tuesday evening.
He was in on of his normal roost trees and flew out to a lamp post. He got mobbed by a bird and decided to return to a branch on his roost tree before flying south. He flew quickly to the construction site. He’s been exploring the inside of the building, and was on an orange lift, before flying out of the building to a little mound of dirt. He then flew up to a pipe inside the building where we could only see his tail and feet.
The night watchman disturbed him and he flew out of the building and around the construction site. He ended up just north of Nutter’s Battery and hooted for over an hour. Eventually, he flew south and we could not relocate him.
I saw Flaco twice on Thursday, once in the afternoon and again in the evening.
In the afternoon, he was a stop before I went to see the two Green-winged Teals that were on The Pool with a group of newly arrived Gadwalls. He was comfortable roosting in an oak tree. Construction has started on the Recreation Center, and this might be changing his choice of roosting locations.
In the evening, I caught up with him at the construction site for the new rink/pool by the Harlem Meer. He was often on the ground, equipment or a barricade. He also was on the roof, on the steps and under the construction trailer. He also hooted.
He got flushed by the night watchman, while hooting and then ended up hooting from a tree east of the constructions site. Since he’s often gone out of the construction site and up to the compost heap, the three of us watching him made the hike up the hill to look for him. It was late, so everyone decided to go home. I left via the constructions site, as I can catch my bus from 110th Street.
On my way out, with my camera equipment in my bag, I saw that he had returned to the construction site. But he was inside the new building on a stack of metal ducts waiting to be installed wrapped in a blue film. He then flew around the inside of the building. He was hidden most of the time, but I got to see him on four perches. I was still setting up my camera, so my video was at times shaky or out of focus, but it was fascinating to see him inside the building. So, on this night Flaco was a Building Inspector.
