Season Watch

Owl see you in the trees

By Heidi Holtan,

Published October 23, 2025 at 7:00 AM CDT

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A Barred Owl enjoys a well-deserved rest after eating a chipmunk near Washington D.C. on May 12, 2018.

In this episode, co-hosts Heidi Holtan and Charlie Mitchell discuss Barred Owls, yellow trees, and listen to reports from John Latimer and Rockford Middle School.

This week’s co-hosts, Heidi Holtan (director of content and public affairs, sometimes enthusiastic crafter mostly a reader) and Charlie Mitchell (KAXE phenology coordinator, outdoorsy doofus) admire the Barred Owl's vocal repertoire, swap favorite mnemonics, and listen to the Mississippi.

In addition, we hear from John Latimer (staff phenologist, septuagenarian with "rizz"), discuss school phenology visits, and enjoy a report from the student phenologists at Rockford Middle School.

Love the podcast? Hate any mnemonic that involves Coldplay? Let us know! Email us at seasonwatch@kaxe.org.

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Heidi Holtan

Heidi Holtan has been involved with KAXE since 2002. Now as Director of Content and Public Affairs she manages and is the host of the KAXE Morning Show, including a variety of local content like Phenology, What's for Breakfast, Area Voices, The Sports Page and much more, alongside Morning Edition from NPR. Her latest project is Ham Radio: Cooking with Amy Thielen.

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Charlie Mitchell

Charlie Mitchell (she/they) joined KAXE in February of 2022. Charlie creates the Season Watch Newsletter, produces the Phenology Talkbacks show, coordinates the Phenology in the Classroom program, and writes nature-related stories for KAXE's website. Essentailly, Charlie is John Latimer's faithful sidekick and makes sure all of KAXE's nature/phenology programs find a second life online and in podcast form.

With a background in ecology and evolutionary biology, Charlie enjoys learning a little bit about everything, whether it's plants, mushrooms, or the star-nosed mole. (Fun fact: Moles store fat in their tails, so they don't outgrow their tunnels every time conditions are good.)

See stories by Charlie Mitchell