"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure in the landscape - the loneliness of it - the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it - the whole story doesn't show." -Andrew Wyeth

CARBONDALE - The words of the contemporary American painter dramatize the need, and success, of the Wonder of Winter Walks sponsored by Giant City State Park.

Park interpreter Jenny Skufka leads a series Wonders of Winter Walks each season. The final two hikes are scheduled for Jan. 6 and 12.

"When the leaves are gone, it's much better for spotting," Skufka said during an unofficial walk down the park's Giant City Trail. "Lately, it's been the owls, because they're courting. We've been spotting the great horned and the barred owls."

Although a barred owl was heard in the distance, Skufka's late afternoon walk didn't result in any sightings. However, near the end of the walk, she stopped in mid-stride on the first note of a pileated woodpecker's squawk.

Immediately, her eyes began scanning the treetops, homing in on the squawking woodpecker. She pointed to the top of the distant tree, where the red crest of the large woodpecker was readily visible.

"This is our keystone species," she said. "Usually every other hike, we get a sighting. If there were leaves on the trees, we'd have no chance at a sighting, or even have any idea how close he is."

Normally, 10-30 people participate in the hikes. Because of the disturbance created by a group of that size, most wildlife sightings are limited to birds. Pileated woodpeckers, nuthatches and even bluebirds are the most commonly spotted species.

The Wonders of Winter Walks touch on a variety of subjects.

Near the beginning of last week's walk, Skufka stopped to point out a Japanese honeysuckle vine.

"This is what the Friends of Giant City have made their primary focus, getting ride of invasive non-natives," she said. "All of their work days are now. Now is when you can easily identify it because there is no other green stuff."

As Skufka worked her way into the Giant City rock formation, she came upon a substantial grown of Christmas fern.

"The Christmas ferns are a big hit," she said. "They stay green in the winter time and the folk stories go the early settlers used them to green up their houses at Christmas."

Tree identification and discussion of the parks mammals also play prominent roles in the program. Obviously, some time is spent on the sandstone formations at Giant City.

"One of the big points is identifying trees by their buds and bark," Skufka said. "We stop along the way and learn to identify trees by their buds. We do as much bird and animal identification as we can.

"That depends on what we see and hear. Of course, the woods are more quiet in the winter. That's one of the wonderful things about hiking in the winter. Winter just affords us more of a chance to use our senses. We listen more. There is so little variation in color we have to look closer."

There is no cost or registration required for the Wonder of Winter hikes. For more information, call (618) 457-4836.

"It's a wide range of people," Skufka said of the people who attend the hikes. "We have everyone from locals to regulars to visitors staying at Carbondale motels that read the newspaper and drop in."

The number of people participating in the hikes vary.

"Usually it hovers between 10 and 30 people, depending on the weather, whether or not the sun is shining," Skufka said.

les.winkeler@thesouthern.com

(618) 529-5454 ext. 15088