INDIANAPOLIS — Despite the cold conditions, Indiana’s winter season is a wonderful time to spend outdoors, exploring nature and wildlife — including searching for owls.
"Being outside in nature really rejuvenates you, your body ... if you go out for a hike, your mental health," said Amelia Wildeman, an Interpretive Nationalist at Harmonie State Park.
A great place to get rejuvenated this winter, Wildeman said, is at Harmonie State Park.
"We have anything from high hills down to floodplain flat, so we have sandy swampy kind of areas," Wildeman explained. "Then we have some really steep ravines leftover from melting glaciers, that carve that out and then we've got really high rolling hills."
Harmonie is also home to several breeds of owls.
"We have a lot of owls. The barred owl has a crazy, crazy sound," she said. "Great horned owls are getting ready to find a mate and do their nesting pretty early so they're pretty vocal in January ... Indiana has a lot of owls and there's even winter owls that are here that aren't normally here."
Wildeman said visitors can easily locate and identify them by listening to the sounds they make. She also said people can make a "hoot" sound and see if they get a response.
"The great horned owl is the big guy and he has the kind of 'whoooo' sound," she said, "... and then the barred owl, that we hear most of all, is that sounds like 'who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?' Something like 'Hoo Hoo oooh!'"
Want to go see the owls? Wildeman has one last suggestion.
"If you go out with a flashlight and do some searching, you might get a glimpse that way," she said. "That's the most fun way."
The Great Perch Search is taking place right now at Harmonie State Park. It's a fun scavenger hunt for the entire family.
