Today I got to hang out with Denver Holt, one of the world's foremost experts on snowy owls. He's been researching owls for over a quarter of a century. He was featured in National Geographic. He's amazing, a fountain of knowledge, a down-to-earth guy who's cool to hang out with. But to hang with Denver, you have to keep up with Denver, which is not so easy.
First, you need to ride an ATV, all terrain vehicle. Yesterday, I tried out an ATV for the first time in my life. It was hands-on learning. I was given the ATV, shown the controls, and told to go and practice on the beach for a bit. It was kind of hard to learn the five gears because you have to keep track of what gear you're in by counting. But after a few minutes, I felt pretty comfortable and prepared to ride alongside Denver the following day...I was a bit wrong.
Driving an ATV is pretty cool. You just have to be careful and remember which gear you're in.
I thought driving an ATV on the tundra would be easy since the tundra is pretty soft and mushy because of the melting thaw layer in the permafrost. However, that makes the ground bumpy and hard to drive on but it was so worth it, driving ten miles on the tundra to have the opportunity to follow Denver around at one of his research sites...and by the end of the day, I'd pretty much fallen in love with my new ride...if it's possible to love a mode of transportation.
Denver is collecting owl feathers learn if reflectivity of the their feathers is a determining factor of male and female mating attraction. Snowy owls can see in the ultraviolet light wavelength range. Denver knows that females are generally attracted to older male owls. Females are slightly brown and spotted. The older male owls are completely snow white in color because they have shed the brown feathers from their youth. (The females shed their feather too, but their adult feathers are spotted.) If the spectrometer test shows that the feathers reflect light in the ultraviolet light range, then Denver will design an experiment and collect data.
Denver Holt uses binoculars to spot snowy owls and their roosts. Owls roost on small mounds so they can watch for lemmings scurrying through the tundra. There are no nests this year because it's a non-reproductive year. They are not reproducing because there is a shortage of lemmings this year and the owls depend on lemmings to feed their young. Denver and I hiked to many roosts in search of feathers.
We found this caribou skull with antlers lying in the ground.
While driving on the beach back towards Barrow, we came across this seal skin. Denver said it was possibly left from a polar bear. The seal skin was really thick and heavy.
Check out this seal
We rode past Hollywood, where movie producers set up camp to make a film about the Iñupiat. It's been abandoned for many years and most of the structures are falling as the tundra erodes into the beach below.