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Denver Holt - On Owls and Field Biology
What 30 years in the field can teach you!
© Tim Rains, NPS Denali, CC
Denver Holt has spent more than 30 years studying the birds in the field. No wonder he can sound so much like this Boreal Owl! Holt conducts field research on eight species of owls in Alaska and Montana. He says, "I think winter is a blast! We all love trapping and banding in the wintertime. It's what we're doing right now -- trapping and banding Long-eared Owls and Saw-whet Owls, as part of our winter project."
You can learn more about Denver's work at the Owl Research Institute.
BirdNote®
Denver Holt – on Owls and Field Biology
Written by Todd Peterson
This is BirdNote.
How can a man learn to call so convincingly like a Boreal Owl [Call of Boreal Owl as given by Denver Holt] or an Eastern Screech-Owl? [Call of Eastern Screech-Owl as given by Denver Holt]
…By dedicating more than 30 years, as Denver Holt has, to studying the birds in the field. Holt, calling here, conducts field research on eight species of owls in Alaska and Montana. He tells us why:
“You know, for me, they’re fascinating…I think I enjoy everything about their adaptation to the environments in which they live. …You gotta have some intuitive feel about the animals that you work with and you only get that intuitive feel by being out in the field with them.
Denver says, “Wildlife researchers spend little time in the field anymore.”
“…the scary part about this is that we’re using those data to manage our natural resources …and their based on miniature studies, short periods of time…so that’s very concerning for people like us who do long-term studies … and are proud of the fact that we’re still in the field.”
[Denver makes the call of a Northern Saw-whet Owl]
“I think winter is a blast! We all love trapping and banding in the wintertime. It’s what we’re doing right now is trapping and banding Long-eared Owls and Saw-whet Owls, as part of our winter project.”
To learn more about Denver’s work at the Owl Research Institute, begin at BirdNote.org.
[Call of the Eastern Screech-Owl as given by Denver Holt]
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All owl calls made by Denver Holt. “Hoots, Toots, Calls and Clacks and Hisses” © 2002 Owl Research Institute in Charlo, MT 59824. Used with permission.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2013 Tune In to Nature.org February 2017 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# holtd-01-2013-02-04holtd-01 Marantz IV Tracks 146 and 151 2:39, 2:48 4:50
Todd Peterson
Writer
