There continued to be only one owl tonight. It who flew to the area between he compost and the nursery before flying to a rodent colony be one of the dumpsters. This is an area we often saw Flaco hunt in, although he would perch a bit higher than the Long-eared Owl.
I’ve been either getting brief glimpses of Flaco, or just missing him by an hour or two over the last week. So, it was delightful to quickly find him and spend three hours watching him on Saturday night into early Sunday morning. He was hooting on buildings within a few blocks of 86th Street and Central Park West.
Sunday and Monday were frustrating. Although we could see them a bit on Sunday, it was too dark to watch them well on Monday. They continued to use the thickets around the hill behind the compost heap, and the ground on a mound on the east side of the compost area.
The Long-eared Owls often would fly from their roost tree to a thicket of saplings between the nursery and the compost heap. They would then fly to the ground on a hill on the east side of the compost area and back into the saplings on the east and south sides of the area.
This was the first time I’d seen Long-eared Owls on the ground and it was a thrill to see the behavior.
Flaco was hooting from backside of buildings on Riverside Drive between 89th and 90th and then on 250 West 90th Street when I went to look for him. Eventually he flew north, possibly to hunt in a courtyard.
February 2nd marks the first anniversary of the vandalism that released him from his cage in the zoo. I suspect we’ll see lots of stories in the news media about how wonderful it is that Flaco has survived in the city. But I doubt we’ll see much real journalism. Individuals, institutions and the media have time and time again put their self interests over Flaco’s welfare.
It’s been amazing to get to know Flaco over the last year. He is stunningly beautiful and studying his behavior has been fascinating. And of course, his ability to survive in Manhattan has surprised everyone. But the story is much more complicated than a caged bird, now free to explore the world.
Flaco is living a life in purgatory now. He is in a dangerous environment without any chance of interacting with other of his species. And he could easily become a threat to local species.
No native Eurasian Eagle-Owl hoots as much as Flaco does. He’s confused. Sadly there may be now happy ending to this story. Unless he returned to Central Park in the spring, it would be difficult to capture him and place him in a sanctuary.
Folks can love him to death on social media, but it won’t keep him from dying prematurely from rodenticides.
The two Long-eared Owls, who had been seen hunting in the Compost Heap area on previous nights, choose to use the slope around the rear of the Butterfly Meadow to look for rodents before flying across the road at 103rd and into the darkness of the Loch.
