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!