Hiking Pere Marquette State Park After Dark Should Be a Hoot For Night Owls

Hiking the trails of Pere Marquette State Parkafter sunset Friday should be quite a hoot thanks to the night owl habits of some of the park’s most vocal denizens.

Those denizens of the park 20 miles north of Alton, IL, barred owls with their distinctive "Who Cooks For You" call, will be the stars of an owl program and two-mile guided hike that starts at 8 p.m. in the park’s visitor center.

The center is at 13112 Visitor Center Lane in Grafton, IL.

"I will use my mouth as well as a tape recorder, and we’ll try to call the barred owl," said Scott Isringhausen, site interpreter for Pere Marquette State Park.

The one-hour program will be preceded by a 5-7 p.m. showing of the nature film "Hoot," featuring, naturally, owls.

"That’s just a real family-oriented movie," Isringhausen said.

The program will give visitors a chance to see taxidermied examples of the eight owl species commonly found in Illinois–the barred, the screech, great horned, barn (which is endangered), long-eared, short-eared, saw-whet and snowy owls. An educational video will be shown and there will be hands-on opportunities.

"I will have a real owl wing if people want to feel it," he said.

The evening, which is free to attend, does have one requisite.

"It’s a really neat hike," Isringhausen said. "The only thing is, the beginning of the hike will be fairly steep, so you need to be in at least halfway decent shape to walk up the hill."

People will need to dress in warm clothes, wear good hiking shoes for the rocky trail and bring a flashlight. The hike climbs to McAdams Peak and goes back to the Goat Cliff trail.

"We’ll stop periodically, we’ll have everyone shut their lights off, we’ll get real quiet, and that’s when we’ll try to call," he said.

Tonight is the second of three Friday night owl hikes.

"Last Friday night’s program, we had about 75 people–actually that was a smaller group than most," he said. "We actually got to hear the owls, and several people got to see one fly over. Usually we don’t see them fly over, but we did."

The owls aren’t the only sights to see.

"When you get to the top up there, it will be a spectacular view," Isringhausen said. "You get to see the lights of St. Charles and the river valley below. At nighttime, it’s just really, really neat up there."

At the end of the hike, people can roast marshmallows and hot dogs in front of an old log cabin near the visitor center. The evening will conclude around 11:30 p.m., after the feast.

"Everybody likes that real well," Isringhausen said. "That’s a really nice gathering point where everybody can talk about it and get something to eat and something to drink."

Education is a big part of the program, Isringhausen said. For instance, owls are nocturnal, which fits nicely into the program’s time frame. They also have incredible eyesight and hearing, both of which enhance their ability to hunt in the dark.

"Their eyes are 35 times more sensitive to light than yours or mine," he said. "Basically what that tells you is they can see in the daytime as well as the nighttime, really, really good. They can hear a mouse breaking a twig as much as 75 feet away. They rely on their eyes, but their hearing is just exceptional. If you hold an owl real level, or you see an owl in the wild, if you get close enough to it, you’ll notice that one of the ears is actually higher than the other one. This enables them to pinpoint the exact direction a sound is coming from."

Thanks to unusual wing feathering, owls are also very quiet in flight, which helps them sneak up on prey.

"They have a little fringe on the sides of the wings, which a hawk or eagle does not have," Isringhausen said. "And their feathers are also exceptionally soft, which muffles the sound."

Understanding owl behavior is useful when it comes to locating them on night excursions.

"The two reasons they’ll make noise – and this would be the reason we get them to answer us – number one, and the main reason is, they are really territorial," Isringhausen said. "That’s the reason we hear them. Then also, in the mating season – the courtship in the spring time – you’ll hear them a lot."

The owls’ territorial sense of home helps Isringhausen know where to look during these night hikes.

"I kind of know where we’ve heard them in the past," he said. "It seems like you hear them in the same places each year. I have a feeling that’s just where they’re raised and where they are."

Last week, they definitely found where the owls were hanging out.

"It was a great stop," he said. "We heard them for half an hour, or close to it. I think it was like three different (owls) we heard at one spot."

It was a vocal group.

"They were making all kinds of sounds, everything from the monkey sound to the ‘Who Cooks For You’ sound. Just all kinds of really weird noises they were making," Isringhausen said.

The owl hikes attract a wide range of visitors, from scout troops and families to older folks. Last week was a particularly good opportunity to commune with the owls.

"Every person was just thrilled to death with what they saw and heard," he said. "Usually it is like that, but no guarantee. But even if we did not hear them, just to walk through the woods at night and realize there are things that aren’t going to hurt you out there, and to see the pretty (city) lights, it’s still a really neat thing, even if we did not hear any owls."

This same hike will also be offered at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21. Other activities coming up at Pere Marquette State Park include a six-mile hike starting at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 15 and 29; a program about explorers Lewis and Clark from 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 22, featuring re-enactors in period clothing, and craft demonstrations; a two-mile fall colors hike starting at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 22, and a scenic fall colors drive leaving from the park at 10 a.m. Oct. 28.

For more information, see the events section of the park’s website.

Getting there

Take Interstate 70 east toward St. Louis to I-270 north toward Chicago. Take exit 31B to merge onto MO-367 north to Alton. MO-367 becomes Highway 67; continue north, cross the bridge and turn left on West Broadway, the first road off the suspension bridge. Take that road past the colorful Alton Belle Casino and turn left onto Illinois 100, also called the River Road. Drive about 21 miles north – the park will be on the right.