Urban Hawks

It’s now over two weeks since vandals released an Eurasian Eagle-Owl from the zoo. I watched the owl in the afternoon and into the evening.

Flaco drew a large crowd on Wednesday. He was just south of where he was discovered yesterday. He coughed up a pellet about an hour before dusk. He was on a low branch but moved up about higher before fly out. It wasn’t clear what made him move. There was a hawk flying about, a group of folks went right under his roost location and it was also close to fly out time. It could have been any one of these reasons, or a combination.

Flaco hooted before leaving the roost tree for the evening.

Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle-Owl released by vandals from the Central Park Zoo, was found just before dusk on a hill east of Bethesda Fountain on Tuesday. It was quiet tonight. It flew east but then circled back before appearing to go west into The Ramble near the Loeb Boathouse.

This puts it squarely in the territory of our resident female Great Horned Owl. On Valentines Day, Bubo romance was a possibility on some owl watcher’s minds. But they could also end up competing for territory. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few days.

Monday, Flaco roosted in the same tall tree as Sunday. He hooted for a long time before fly out. After fly out he headed north and for the first time was seen on Sheep Meadow. I had to run off to dinner, but I believe folks lost track of him after seeing last in a tree on the southeast corner of the meadow.

Superbowl Sunday was delightful since the park was empty. Flaco was roosting in a tree further west than the White Pine. It was higher and further than before, but it attracted a Cooper’s Hawk who made a few passes at Flaco.

Flaco regurgitated a pellet and at fly did a loop around the roost site before landing on a rock. I missed getting a photo after he was flushed by a dog. Soon we had him catching and eating a Brown Rat on the ball fields.

After eating, he went up on a dugout fence before going off to hunt again. I left but reports are he hooted a bit soon there after.

Saturday, Flaco continued to roost in the White Pine and after fly out went to some trees to the north. I left and ran off to dinner.

When I returned the Wildlife Conservation Society staff was packing up and having a team meeting. You could see they all knew that Flaco was now an independent bird. They all looked exhausted after a week of having their normal duties and evenings trying to recover Flaco. No one knew if Flaco would be able to make it on his own, so these folks were there to save him if need be. No matter how you feel about zoos and their place in a modern world, we owe the recovery team our thanks for making sure he survived his first week outside of captivity.

I had walked the long way around the ball field as to not disturb the team meeting, and a friend called me to let me know that Flaco was in a tree with a rat. He seemed to be in no rush to eat it. He nibbled a bit and then hooted in two long session, one with over 100 hoots and one with over 85. He then nibbled on the rat again. At times, he seemed to adjusting to eating in a tree!