July 11, 2003

Night Vigil

By LAWRENCE BIEMILLER

Nightfall comes chilly at 9,000 feet. Brian D. Linkhart has been waiting motionless halfway up the trunk of an aspen for 35 minutes now, staking out a nest of two flammulated owls as darkness pools among the trees. Like a telephone lineman, Mr. Linkhart has climbing spikes attached to his boots and a thick strap wrapped around the aspen at belt level, and he's holding a lacy net on a long, telescoping handle. The female owl is in the nest on the far side of a tree 10 feet away, keeping her

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