Jessica on a pygmy owl survey for her work.
She has to stop at several different checkpoints, 8 for this survey, and at each one play a recording of an owl hooting, for a few seconds every few minutes. And sit for 15 minutes waiting to see if a real owl shows up, or if there’s any other responses from other wildlife.

This is all done by her company, an environmental consulting firm that does surveys like this for clients who are mostly big developers who need to comply with federal, state, and local environmental law. they have to prove that there’s no endangered species where they want to build. so they hire these consultants.