Inelastic neutron scattering (INS), electron spin resonance (ESR), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements were employed to establish the origin of the strong magnetic signal in lightly-hole-doped , . Both INS and ESR low temperature spectra show intense excitations with large effective factors . NMR data indicate the creation of extended magnetic clusters. From the dependence of the INS magnetic intensity, we conclude that the observed anomalies are caused by the formation of octahedrally shaped spin-state polarons comprising seven Co ions. The present INS, ESR, and NMR data give evidence for two regimes in the lightly-hole-doped samples: (i)  dominated by spin polarons; (ii)  dominated by thermally activated magnetic ions.