The Hawkshank Redemption

A prison escapee found a home in Central Park, and I paid him a visit. WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY PETER MOORE

IN EARLY APRIL, THE MANHATTAN BIRD ALERT shared a Tweet about an escaped bird. How appropriate!

New Yorkers are in fact crazy about birds, especially when rare species show up in Central Park. Barred owls. Great snowies. Escapees from the bird gulag at the Central Park Zoo.

Flaco—a Eurasian eagle-owl—is something of a celebrity, earning coverage in the New York Times and on Late Night with Seth Meyers. His story: After a vandal cut a hole in his cage, Flaco flew the coop, taking up in residence in The Loch, in the wild woods of Central Park.

Or so the Tweet said.

My wife, son, his partner, and I, decided to investigate.

First, we bought coffee and doughnuts, at the Dunkin’ on 106th Street and Madison Avenue.

Then we consulted the map.