What to look for in nature in Alabama this January

Where can you see bald eagles in Alabama in January?

• Eagle Awareness at Lake Guntersville

  Usually the last weekends of January; the 2027 dates are not posted yet · Lake Guntersville State Park, the lodge and the lake's causeways and coves

  Alabama's oldest eagle program began at this park in 1985, and the state parks call the coming season its 41st. For years it filled all of January; it now runs as two packed weekends, which in 2026 fell on January 23 to 25 and January 30 to February 1. A weekend brings live raptor shows, talks and guided eagle safaris, and ADCNR describes pre-dawn watches on the lake shore as the highlight. Watch the park's reservations page for the 2027 schedule; its shorter All About Eagles program starts January 2.

• The midwinter eagle count

  Early January · Major lakes and reservoirs statewide

  Each year in the first weeks of January, biologists and volunteers drive and boat the shores of Alabama's large reservoirs on the same days, part of the long-running national Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey. ADCNR reports that the Alabama tally has run between about 100 and 150 birds in recent winters, and that the trend keeps improving. The department has even stopped surveying nests statewide, since well over 100 are now known.

• Eggs hatching, and brown eagles

  Hatching from about early January; more chicks by month's end · Large pines and other tall trees within sight of big water

  ADCNR gives 30 to 32 days of incubation for eggs laid in December or January, so a pair that laid around Christmas should have chicks by late January. The all-brown or white-blotched eagles you see are immature; ADCNR says adulthood takes about five years. Joe Wheeler State Park's naturalist leads Eagle Eye walks to spot a nest, beginning Saturday, January 2.

• Golden eagles in the hills

  Late fall through winter; rare · Skyline, Freedom Hills and Oakmulgee wildlife management areas and the Talladega National Forest

  Alabama's other eagle is far harder to find. Golden eagles from a small eastern population that nests in eastern Canada spend the winter in the southern Appalachians, and since 2012 Alabama has joined 15 other states in watching them with trail cameras at bait sites, which have recorded thousands of photographs of the birds in Alabama winters. ADCNR lists the species as rare in every region and of high conservation concern. A big dark eagle soaring over a mountain ridge with its wings in a shallow V is worth a careful second look: a golden's legs are feathered to the toes, while a young bald eagle shows ragged white patches under the wings.

Are the sandhill cranes still at Wheeler in January?

• A field full of cranes at midday

  All January · Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center and the Wildlife Observation Building, east of Decatur

  The birds leave their night roost soon after sunrise and drift back to it in the late afternoon, so the refuge association suggests the middle of the day for the biggest crowd in front of the observation building. Bring binoculars and scan the edges of the flock for a much whiter, taller bird: the refuge association lists endangered whooping cranes among the refuge's winter visitors.

• The Festival of the Cranes

  Usually the second weekend of January; check the 2027 schedule · Wheeler refuge and venues in downtown Decatur

  The refuge association stages this festival every winter with talks, art and children's activities around Decatur and birding at the refuge; the International Crane Foundation sends educators each year. The association had not posted its 2027 program in early October, so check its site before you plan a trip. One piece is already set: the Cook Museum of Natural Science will hold its crane day, themed on whooping cranes, on Saturday, January 9, 2027, with crafts, short science demonstrations and a crane dance for children.

• A crane photo contest

  Voting December 28 to January 14; winners named January 15, 2027 · Decatur Public Library, 504 Cherry Street

  The library's second crane photo contest lets the public vote from December 28 through January 14; the winning prints stay on display there until January 30.

When do spotted salamanders lay their eggs in Alabama?

• Spotted salamander egg masses

  Late December to early February · Shallow, fishless woodland pools in hardwood forest, across most of the state except the lower Coastal Plain

  Look in the morning after a warm rain, in calm water a foot or two deep. A mass can hold more than 200 eggs, each inside its own membrane, with the whole cluster wrapped in firm jelly; some look clear and some milky white. The adults are big for a salamander, typically six to eight inches long, black or dark gray with two rows of yellow spots, and they spend most of the year underground.

• Southern leopard frogs

  Most breeding December to March · Ponds, ditches, marsh edges and woodland pools statewide

  Extension lists this slim, spotted frog among Alabama's winter breeders, and ADCNR puts most of its breeding between December and March. A female leaves a cluster of hundreds to thousands of eggs in shallow water, and the tadpoles hatch in only a week to ten days.

• Slow down on wet nights

  Mild, rainy nights · Rural roads that cross between woods and wetlands

  Extension asks drivers to slow down on rural roads on rainy winter nights, because salamanders and frogs cross the pavement after dark on their way to the pools.

Why are owls hooting and bobcats on the move in January?

• Barred owls start courting

  Pairing late January into February; eggs February to April · Bottomland hardwoods, swamps and mature mixed forest

  ADCNR says barred owls pair up in late January and early February with a great deal of hooting and commotion. The familiar song is a rhythm of eight hoots, but a courting pair adds cackles, barks and screams that can sound like a fight in the treetops. Stand by a creek bottom at dusk and you may hear two or three owls answering each other. Great horned owls nest even earlier, so a pair that began in December may already have downy young to feed.

• Bobcats in their peak breeding season

  Breeding peaks December to late February; kittens about two months later · Upland woods, river bottoms, swamps and brushy farmland statewide

  ADCNR puts the peak of bobcat breeding between December and late February. Soft mud along creeks and logging roads is the place to look for their prints.

• Gray foxes, the fox that climbs

  Breeding in January or February · Thick brush, wooded lowlands and swamps statewide

  The gray fox is common across Alabama but secretive and active mostly at night, so ADCNR notes it is seldom seen. It breeds in January or February, and kits arrive about 50 to 60 days later in a den or hollow log. It is one of the few dogs that can climb, scrambling up trees to escape danger or to reach eggs and birds, so a fox you see on a low branch is no mistake.

What can you see on the Alabama coast in January?

• Piping plovers

  August to May; most numerous in winter · Pelican Island, Little Dauphin Island and parts of Dauphin Island; now and then the western Fort Morgan Peninsula

  The piping plover is a sand-colored shorebird hardly bigger than a sparrow, about seven inches long, whose stubby bill is orange with a black tip in the breeding season but black in winter. ADCNR says Alabama once hosted more than 200 in winter, but the most counted at one time now is usually under 40, partly because the tidal flats at Dauphin and Little Dauphin have degraded. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the species as threatened and designated critical wintering habitat on Alabama's islands and peninsula in 2001. Give any feeding flock a wide berth.

• Snowy plovers, year-round residents

  All year; nesting begins in April · Gulf State Park, Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge and Pelican Island

  Paler still than a piping plover, the snowy plover stays on Alabama's beaches all year in very small numbers, and ADCNR ranks it among the species of highest conservation concern. In winter they rest in shallow scrapes in the sand and are almost invisible until they run. Nesting starts in April, so January is a calm time to look for them without disturbing a nest.

• Coastal programs

  Dated programs throughout January · Gulf State Park, Gulf Shores, and Alabama Point East, Orange Beach

  Gulf State Park's naturalists run a beginners' birding session at Alabama Point East at 10 a.m. on Thursday, January 21, an Explore the Shore beach walk on Monday, January 18, and a close look at the park's education raptors on Tuesday, January 26. Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, about 7,000 acres of dunes and coastal forest, is open for winter walks.

Will pine siskins and other winter finches come to Alabama this year?

• Pine siskins

  Possible from midwinter into early spring · Thistle (nyjer) and sunflower feeders, sweetgum and pine trees

  Siskins are the one finch the forecast says could reach the southeastern states in some numbers, in a flight it rates small to moderate. Look for a heavily streaked, brown, goldfinch-sized bird with a fine pointed bill and yellow edging in the wings; they often travel with goldfinches. If a flock settles in, wash the feeders every week or two.

• Purple finches and red-breasted nuthatches

  Late winter, if at all · Feeders and woodland edges, mostly in north Alabama

  The forecast expects at best a small, late flight of purple finches to the south, and no large movement of red-breasted nuthatches toward the southeastern states.

• Count your feeder birds

  Through the winter · Your own yard

  Cornell's Project FeederWatch runs through April, and every count, even of only cardinals and chickadees, helps track where winter birds go. Report any finch you see in eBird; it is how the forecasters check their predictions.

How cold and snowy is January in Alabama, and what might El Niño bring?

When do Alabama sunsets get back to 5 p.m.?

What can you see in the night sky over Alabama in January?

• The Quadrantids

  Night of Sunday, January 3, into Monday, January 4 · Anywhere dark, best after midnight

  Forecasts for the few-hour Quadrantid maximum differ: about 9:30 p.m. Sunday by the meteor society's reckoning, closer to midnight by EarthSky's. Either way the radiant, near the handle of the Big Dipper, climbs as the night goes on, so Alabama's best window is the last few hours of darkness before Monday's sunrise. A slim crescent Moon only comes up shortly before dawn. Under truly dark country skies a patient watcher might count a few dozen in an hour; city lights cut that sharply.

• Earth closest to the Sun

  Saturday, January 2, 8:33 p.m. · No viewing needed

  Our planet passes its closest point to the Sun this evening, roughly 91.4 million miles out, even as Alabama shivers through its coldest weeks. Winter is a matter of axial tilt; the few percent of extra sunlight from being nearer barely registers.

• Venus at its farthest from the Sun

  Greatest elongation January 3; brilliant all month · Southeast before sunrise

  Venus stands 47 degrees from the Sun on January 3, its widest separation of this morning apparition, so it rides high in the southeast in the hour before sunup. Point even modest binoculars or a backyard telescope at it and you can see that only half of its disk is lit.

• The Wolf Moon, the year's closest full moon

  Full at 6:17 a.m. Friday, January 22; best the night of the 21st · Rising in the east-northeast at dusk on January 21

  Because the Moon swings through perigee less than a day before full, January's is the closest full moon of the year, some 222,229 miles from Earth, and every supermoon list includes it. It is fullest just before dawn on the 22nd, so the night of Thursday the 21st is the night to watch it rise. On the evening of January 23 the waning Moon passes near Jupiter, the brilliant planet just to its side.

• Jupiter, Saturn and a glimpse of Mercury

  All month · Jupiter east, Saturn southwest, Mercury very low in the west-southwest

  Jupiter clears the eastern horizon soon after dark and outshines every star; it comes to opposition, when it is biggest and brightest, on February 10. Saturn slips a little lower in the southwest each evening. In the closing days of the month, sweep binoculars low over the spot where the Sun went down, about 30 minutes after sunset, for Mercury, heading toward its best evening appearance of the winter in early February.

What can Alabama families do outside in January 2027?

Safety notes for January in Alabama