Urban Hawks

Today, Flaco wasn’t in any of his normal roosts. An owl watcher saw him flying south along the East Drive around 97th Street, so he might have roosted in a tree near the Southwest corner of the East Meadow or the Southeast corner of the eastern half of the North Meadow.

Because he was seen going south of the 96th Street Transverse the search for him started there and at the Tennis Courts but he wasn’t found. I backtracked north, to the meadows, compost, Nutter’s Battery and construction. I then heard him hooting from Nutter’s Battery. He was first in a tree at the northeastern side of the construction site and then continued hooting from his favorite tree in the area. But just as we started to photograph him, he left.

We relocated him in his favorite tree at Compost. He went to the ground twice. He seemed to miss on the first try, but if it was little he might have eaten it on the spot. On his second try, he caught a small rodent. He returned to his tree and ate it in one or two bites. I accidentally didn’t record his eating.

He then relaxed and even close his eyes for a few minutes. After the long evening of Saturday night, I went home. However two other owl watchers stayed to see if he would continue hunting.

When you watch owls, you have good night and bad nights. Owls can easily disappear out of view or perch for hours. Recently, we’ve had a string of difficult nights.

However, Friday night turned out to be one of the best nights I’ve had watching him. The group watching him had him in view for four hours and he hunted on the ground near his roost tree, caught a Brown Rat (or possibly retrieved a previously caught rat that he cached or had fallen from his roost during the day), ate the Brown Rat. Later, in the same spot the Snowy Owl bathed, he played in the water and took a bath.

It was a wonderful evening.

After a few days of having Flaco being relaxed after fly out, he was very active tonight. He surprised us by active he was visiting a number of “old favorite” perches and some new ones. We lost track of him fairly early, however.

Ofter the last few weeks, Flaco has been in no rush to do anything after fly out. He’s either exploring the construction site, hooting or just perching on a branch. Hunting seems to be low on the list of his priorities before midnight. We know he’s eating well, as we see him with food in the morning and coughing up pellets, but he seems to have shifted to hunting later in the night when the park is closed.

The longer nights may have made him less in a rush to hunt early, but it’s only a guess. However, it does mean that we’re much less likely to seem him hunt or be on the round if we stay to watch him after fly out.

Tonight was one of those quiet nights. He did some hooting in a tree half way from his roost tree and the construction site after fly out, and then went to the construction site before perching for hours in a tree east of the construction site.

Tonight started as a fairly standard night. Flaco flew out of his roost and headed for the constructions site. He made two stops before he was interrupted by Red-tailed Hawk, who chased after him briefly. Flaco ended up hooting from a tree up on the ridge trail before flying to the tree he hooted from last night. Late in the evening he flew out of the tree and we couldn’t relocate him.