A Harker middle school student has used his creative talents to help protect a local endangered species. Jonathan Armer, grade 8, and his older sister created a documentary focusing on burrowing owls, a species whose numbers are rapidly decreasing in Santa Clara County. Arranged under the auspices of the local Audubon Society, the Armer siblings worked on the documentary for close to a year, editing the countless hours of footage down to a 13-minute film.

Jonathan Armer, who has been making films for four years, said the most difficult parts of the project were things he could not control. “You can’t get the owls to do what you want,” he said. “You kind of just have to wait for them to do something interesting and then edit out the ‘boring stuff,’” adding that constantly varying light conditions made filming that much harder.

The Armers’ efforts were not in vain. The Audubon Society will be using their documentary as a lobbying tool as they press local city governments to establish and fund conservation plans, including an owl sanctuary at Shoreline Park in Mountain View and on the property of the San Jose Water Pollution Control Plant.

Armer plans to continue pursuing filmmaking, hoping eventually to study at the New York Academy of Film.

To see the documentary, as well as to learn more about conservation efforts, please click here.