Indiana Nature Notes for January

Owl Prowling at Kankakee Sands

The dark winter months can be a great time for owl prowling. Owls are nocturnal, which means that they are the most active feeding, vocalizing and moving about in the dark hours. With winter’s long nights and short days, it’s an ideal time to brush up your owl abilities with a walk at dusk to look for and learn about owls.

In Indiana, we have 8 species of owls that spend some part of their lives in Indiana, whether they are yearlong residents or winter visitors. How many owls have you seen or heard? Check them off this list!  *

• Barn owl
• Barred owl
• Eastern screech owl
• Great horned owl
• Long-horned owl
• Northern saw-whet owl
• Short eared owl, winter resident
• Snowy owl, winter resident

Though their wings are long, the tufts of feathers on their heads are short, especially when compared to the feather tufts on the heads of long-eared owls. These tufts have nothing to do with hearing, but they sure look as if they could be ears. Rest assured that the short-eared owl, as with all owl species, have excellent hearing!

Short-eared owls have quiet vocalizations, and therefore are not as easy to identify by their hoots and whoots, like many of our other Indiana owls. To me, their call sounds like the short raspy vocalization of an angry cat. Re-ow! Re-ow! During courtship, males often utter a series of soft hoots in succession, which I had the luck of hearing one February a few years ago. Another sound you might hear from the short-eared owls is during courtship, when males and females will take the tips of their wings and clap them in flight below their bodies. I haven’t yet seen or heard this, but I sure would love to!

Even if you don’t hear their calls or hoots, short-eared owls are still fairly easy to locate. Short-eared owls fly at dawn and dusk over the prairies of Kankakee Sands and often perch on fenceposts and signs. What’s more, they’ll often look right at you!

It’s pretty amazing to have a state-endangered bird look you in the eyes. I wonder what they are thinking as they look at me. I know what I am thinking as I look at them: “Wow! That’s amazing!”  How can we not want to help protect habitat the prairies and grasslands that the short-eared owls needs to survive?! Prairies in Indiana alone used to cover 15 percent of the state. Today, prairies account for a mere 1 percent. By protecting the few remaining acres, , as well as restoring more prairies and grasslands, we can support a healthy short-eared owl population, as well as a healthy ecosystem for so many other prairie plants and animals.

Short-eared owls typically return to our Kankakee Sands area in late October or November and stay until about March. However, we have been very fortunate to have a few pair of short-eared owls stay all summer to breed and raise their young here! Ever since we planted the first prairies at Kankakee Sands 25 years ago, this is what we had hoped for – that these prairies would be a home for thousands of species of animals, including state endangered species such as the short-eared owl.

This past year, The Nature Conservancy made a number of improvements at Kankakee Sands to make viewing short-eared owls and the many other insects and animals of the prairie easier and more accessible. There are viewing platforms and spotting scopes at both the Kankakee Sands welcome area and Bison Viewing Area, as well as benches and restrooms.

When you visit Kankakee Sands, keep in mind that because short-eared owls are comfortable perching on posts and trees adjacent to roads, it does make them vulnerable to collisions with vehicles. If you are driving at night at Kankakee Sands, do use caution to avoid hitting a short-eared owl, and other wildlife that may be crossing the roads, such as deer, coyotes, raccoons and opossums.

Ready to see some short-eared owls?! Join Friends of the Sands and The Nature Conservancy for an Owl Prowl on on Sunday, January 19 and again on Saturday, January 25 from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm, (Central time). To find out more, visit the Friends of the Sands webpage.

*Not familiar with all of the species of owls in Indiana? Check out a bird guide from your local library, or visit Humane Indiana’s webpage on our Indiana owls.

Nature Notes for December, 2024

Squirrel!

If you thought that squirrels were a distraction for dogs, you should see the Kankakee Sands staff when someone says, “squirrel!” Whenever we think we see one of the recently-released Franklin’s ground squirrels on the prairie, it’s worth stopping in our tracks to confirm. (Note: we do not chase them, much to the confusion of my dog!)

This past summer, 25 Franklin’s ground squirrel (Poliocitellus franklinii) adults and 16 young were released onto the Kankakee Sands prairie, a joint effort by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Purdue Fort Wayne. The partners have been discussing bringing the state-endangered Franklin’s ground squirrels to their native Indiana range (including the 8,000-acre Kankakee Sands prairie) for several years.

All that weight they put on is to prepare them for a long hibernation. In our Northwest Indiana area, hibernation for Franklin’s typically takes place from early October to early May – that’s a long winter slumber! And you can imagine how much they must eat in order to nearly double in size, especially for those females who are also rearing young – which takes more calories and energy. The omnivorous diet of a Franklin’s includes the parts of plants including roots, tubers, leaves, and seeds as well as eggs, insects, frogs, toads and sometimes even mice.

As part of the reintroduction project at Kankakee Sands Purdue Fort Wayne researchers selected 25 Franklin’s ground squirrels in South Dakota for collection and translocation under a bi-state permit. The ground squirrels passed their veterinarian inspection, and then spent 21-days in quarantine to ensure that they were free from disease. Just before releasing the squirrels into their outdoor acclimatizing enclosures on the prairie, it was noted that several of the females had given birth to litters of young!

So, out of necessity, the females with their young were reared temporarily in the Kankakee Sands office shop in a quiet secluded area. Justin Moore, M.Sc. Candidate at Purdue Ft Wayne, is the lead researcher on the project. He spent every day caring for the squirrels in the shop and tracking those that had been released. Justin says of working with the squirrels, “The reintroduction has gone pleasantly smoothly, and we are very happy with our progress thus far! We are optimistic about the future of this project and believe that this prairie couldn’t be a better home for the critters.”

Many of the ground squirrels were equipped with radio collars so that researchers can collect data on dispersal, preferred habitat and time in hibernation. All this is a part of a larger effort to better understand the Franklin’s ground squirrels and ultimately successfully reestablish them all across their native range of prairie habitat which extendsfrom north central United States to central Canada. Interestingly, Northwest Indiana is the furthest eastern section of their range.

The largest threat to Franklin’s ground squirrels is loss of habitat, specifically prairie habitat. Additional pressure is from their natural predators, such as badgers, coyotes, fox, hawks and snakes. Interestingly, researchers at Kankakee Sands found the remains of one of the Franklin’s beside a badger den at Kankakee Sands!

We are excited to watch as the story of the Franklin’s ground squirrel reintroduction at Kankakee Sands and northwest Indiana unfolds. As Brad Westrich, the DNR state mammalogist, says so eloquently, “By establishing populations on large, managed properties, we can reduce negative environmental pressures and offer a path to recovery.”

Kankakee Sand Project Director Trevor Edmonson shares that his vision for the Efroymson Restoration at Kankakee Sands is “to create a grassland conservation area where all prairie plants and animals can thrive.” And that certainly includes Franklin’s ground squirrels!

Kankakee Sands is excited to be a part of the recovery of the Franklin’s ground squirrels. And we really look forward to hearing the melodic trill of the Franklin’s next spring!