OF OWLS AND MARRIAGE

Birders, and people interested in celebrity owls, have been tracking him around the park. One of the easiest ways to spot him is to wander around Central Park looking for a small group of people with binoculars and cameras all staring at the same thing. There have been some great photos produced – Flaco with skyscrapers in the background, Flaco sitting on the arms of backhoes, Flaco getting harassed by squirrels, Flaco standing next to a trap, declining to take the bait.

Trying to get a good look at an owl can bring out the ruthlessness in some people, especially photographers. Several websites and Facebook pages will no longer post “paparazzilike” photos of owls for fear of the disruptive, unethical and sometimes outright dangerous (for the owl) techniques some photographers will use to get a good shot.

Eurasian eagle-owls tend to breed and live in remote places that are only sparsely settled – narrow gorges, high cliffs, swampy forests, uninhabited grasslands and the occasional bit of rocky farmland. Flaco has seen, and been surrounded by, far more humans than any member of his species is supposed to – even if you don’t count his 13 years on display in the zoo.

Interestingly, the crowds that have followed Flaco around seem to have been respectful.

You have not seen a lot of stories about boorish behavior, about people crowding too close and disturbing the bird, or about people chasing it aggressively around the park. My guess is because there are so many people keeping tabs on Flaco, and so many people emotionally invested in his wellbeing, that anyone who might bother the owl will get called out before they have a chance to create much of an effect.

A lot of people are viewing Flaco’s escape, as well as his post-escape exploits, as something of a metaphor. Michiko Kakutani, the famously fierce book critic for the New York Times, wrote, “Many New Yorkers, especially those confined to small apartments during COVID, identified with Flaco’s story,” adding, “Flaco gave a weary city still trying to come back from the pandemic a heartening sense of resilience.” (Kakutani seems to have a thing for Manhattanite owls, as this was the third story about a Central Park owl that she’s come out of retirement to write.)

I’m always wary of seeing birds as metaphors for our lives. Birds have a tough enough existence without us saddling them with our emotional baggage. And their actual lives are generally far more interesting than whatever symbolism we project upon them.

The fact that Flaco seems to be thriving is great, but the road ahead has many risks for a bird so far from its natural habitat. The biggest, in a city famous for its rodents, is most likely rat poison, which tends to travel up the food chain and accumulate at the top.

Even when it doesn’t outright kill an alpha predator like an owl, it will often impair them and make them vulnerable to other risks.

There is also the omnipresent danger of cars. The previous most famous Central Park owl – a barred owl nicknamed Barry – was killed in 2021 when it collided with a moving Central Park Conservancy maintenance vehicle. (Kakutani’s story about this owl was sweet, but contained a level of sentimentality for which she would have excoriated any first-time novelist. Which shows how owls can soften even the seemingly hardest of hearts.)

I’m not sure how it’ll go for Flaco. I wish him well, though I’m not sure whether I want to see him re-captured, which would be the safest thing for him, or whether I want to see him continue to make his way in Central Park, which is probably the most fulfilling way for him to live. But I appreciate him providing me with the opportunity to keep my marriage on track.

Karen Newfield

... a reader and now a writer, has hundreds of book reviews at: www. readingandeating.com. For questions and comments, email karen@newfield. org.