On Saturday, February 26, the Friends of Rydell and Glacial Ridge Refuges Association will be hosting a Candlelight Ski and Owl Prowl event at the Rydell National Wildlife Refuge.
Randy Sondrol is a member of the Friends of Rydell and Glacial Ridge Refuges Association group, and he said they’ve put the event on four times since he has been a member. “Basically, the event will start at 6:00 p.m. that day and go until 9:30 p.m.,” said Sondrol. “It will be held right at the Rydell and Glacial Ridge Refuge, and what we do is we groom the Golden Pond trail that is about a mile and a half, and then people can come out with their cross-country skis, snowshoes, and the whole point of it is to get some people outside to have some fun.”
The Church Lake trails at the Refuge will also be lighted and groomed for the event, and those trails are about one mile long. Skis and snowshoes will not be provided for the event due to limited supplies. While the trails will be lit, Sondrol also noted they strongly encourage participants to wear headlamps in case the candles go out, and you need an extra light source.
Sondrol also talked more about the Owl Prowl part of the event. “We get volunteers from UMC and the Natural Resources Department, and they basically set up call stations for Owls along the trails,” said Sondrol. “The hope is that owls will be in the area that night and that they will call back. The first year we had a lot of return calls, and some even flew by, and the skiers were able to see them. So, this event certainly gets you back into nature, and you can see wildlife in its domain, and people tend to really enjoy that.”
The species of Owls that will be called in include Saw, Whet, Barred, and Great Horned. While the goal is to call Owls in, Sondrol noted there is plenty of wildlife in the area, and you never know what you might see.
For more information on the event, you can contact Greg Knutsen at 218-686-4329 or gregg_knutsen@fws.gov. If temperatures are below zero or wind chills are in the double-digits below zero, the event will be canceled and potentially rescheduled later. There is no cost for the event, and pre-registration is not required. The Rydell and Glacial Ridge is located at 17788 349th Street SE in Erskine, Minnesota.
