With her ear to the treetops Julie has listened closely for birds and taught others to do the same since 2007, seeking to understand and quantify bird populations across North America. Julie focus is on data modeling and analysis of northern spotted owls and their competitor - the invasive barred owl. She looks at demographic patterns and habitat use, diving deep into giant data sets on spotted owls and untangling any mysteries the data may hold. Learning new information with every step, Julie's hand in the technical side of wildlife research allows her to flex her organizational skills as she puts data into usable frameworks for more accurate analysis. This backbone theoretical work is something that Julie is proud to do. "I feel like I’m part of history in this job," she says.
For Julie, the future of spotted owl research lies in allowing owls to redefine their space on the landscape, and she hopes to influence understanding of how environmental changes affect wild avian populations and forest ecosystems. She sees great potential in bioacoustics as a strategy for continuing to monitor northern spotted owls while simultaneously collecting data on other avian and mammalian species.
Julie has worked in a variety of wildlife ecology positions, from an ornithological internship on Nantucket where she banded osprey and barn owls and led birding expeditions to a stint in Hawaii with captive crows, and a few years with the Wisconsin DNR. Her focus has always come back to avian ecology, culminating in her Ph.D. work with post-fledgling songbird ecology, which led to the quantitative modeling and demographic analysis that she continues to focus on today. In her free time, Julie can be found listening for bird song, walking Ludo her golden-doodle, and caring for her young son and daughter.
For Julie, the future of spotted owl research lies in allowing owls to redefine their space on the landscape, and she hopes to influence understanding of how environmental changes affect wild avian populations and forest ecosystems. She sees great potential in bioacoustics as a strategy for continuing to monitor northern spotted owls while simultaneously collecting data on other avian and mammalian species.
Julie has worked in a variety of wildlife ecology positions, from an ornithological internship on Nantucket where she banded osprey and barn owls and led birding expeditions to a stint in Hawaii with captive crows, and a few years with the Wisconsin DNR. Her focus has always come back to avian ecology, culminating in her Ph.D. work with post-fledgling songbird ecology, which led to the quantitative modeling and demographic analysis that she continues to focus on today. In her free time, Julie can be found listening for bird song, walking Ludo her golden-doodle, and caring for her young son and daughter.