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.
Central Park’s resident Great Horned Owl was in an open roosting location today, so I took some time to see her. She arrived in the park with a damaged left leg but has managed to do well despite the injury. In the video you can see how she’s adapted.
After fly out, and after the American Robins went to roost, she crooked and gave a short hoot. It was the first time I’d heard her in months.
Flaco caught a Brown Rat early in the evening, but took his time finding a place to eat it. He got interrupted by people, fireworks and raccoons. It wasn’t until he had visited a number of locations that he settled down to dinner after midnight.
I had been coming to see Flaco right around his fly out time, so I came a bit early today. He got visited by some Fish Crows and American Robins and did a bit of stretching before fly out. It was then to a grassy compost hill, just like the night before where he stayed for a long time before flying to a Black Locust tree. He then flew to one of his favorite trees before we lost track of him.
I arrived after Flaco had flown out for the evening. He was in a tree above the East Drive. He flew off and we couldn’t find him. After a thirty minute search, I found him. Flaco was hiding in plain sight this evening between two hills of dirt before going higher.
There had been reports that he had irritated one of his eyes a few days ago. Both eyes looked fine on Monday night.
Watching Flaco on Wednesday night was somewhat disappointing. He roosted in a familiar tree, flew to some nearby trees, but didn’t hunt. He made a trip over the Andrew Haswell Green Bench area and then returned but made a second trip over the area and disappeared. Searches of the construction site came up empty. He could have be flying to the Loch or the Wildflower Meadow. But now that he isn’t hooting, and the trees have leafed out, he’s hard to follow.
