What to look for in nature in Colorado this January

Where can I see bald eagles in Colorado in January?

• The midwinter eagle count

  Early to mid-January; the 2027 window is set by the national coordinators · Routes and reservoirs statewide, including John Martin Reservoir near Hasty

  Since 1979 volunteers have counted eagles along the same routes each January for the National Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey, now coordinated with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Army Corps of Engineers. The 2026 count ran from January 7 to 21, and January 9 and 10 were the days organizers aimed for; the 2027 window had not been posted when we wrote this. At John Martin Reservoir, the Corps and CPW host an annual early-morning count that welcomes beginners. Counters tallied 78 eagles there in January 2024, 65 bald and 13 golden, but only 44 bald eagles in January 2025, a drop a park ranger suggested might reflect less ice on the reservoir, with more open water around for the birds to spread out on. The Corps has announced past counts on the reservoir’s Facebook page, so look there in December for the 2027 date.

• Barr Lake and the Arsenal

  All month; the first two hours after sunrise are best · Barr Lake State Park near Brighton; Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Commerce City

  Since 1986 at least one eagle pair has been logged at Barr Lake each year, and a communal roost of wintering eagles uses the cottonwoods until that pair settles down to lay. Look for perched birds in the cottonwoods over the water rather than flying ones. At the Arsenal, scan the prairie dog towns along the wildlife drive as well as the lakeside trees, since the refuge’s winter raptors hunt its prairie dogs and rabbits against the snow. A spotting scope helps at both places, and a thermos helps more.

• The Colorado River roost in Rocky Mountain National Park

  Closure in force November 15 to March 15 · West side of the park, near Grand Lake

  Every winter, eagles return to a communal roost near the Colorado River on national forest land beside the park. To protect it, Rocky Mountain National Park and the Forest Service close the river and a band 300 yards wide on each side, plus parts of the East Shore Trail and Columbine Bay, from mid-November to mid-March. The Ranger Meadows loop, outside the closure, stays open. Watch from legal ground and you may see birds flying into the roost at dusk.

Why are coyotes, foxes and owls so noisy in a Colorado January?

• Coyote choruses

  Dusk, the middle of the night and just before dawn · Open space and prairie edges all along the Front Range; Rocky Mountain Arsenal; the plains and high parks

  Coyotes are mostly active at dawn and dusk, CPW notes, and are highly vocal, with yips and howls that keep neighboring coyotes informed. In January you may also notice two coyotes traveling together where you usually see one. Stand outside on a still, cold evening near open country and listen: the chorus often starts with one voice and spreads.

• Red foxes screaming

  Mostly after dark, January into February · Most of the state, including towns, golf courses and open space

  CPW warns that the fox’s screeching yowl is the sound most often mistaken for a cat fight or even a mountain lion. If you hear it from the edge of a park or a field, it is very likely a fox calling for a mate. By day, watch a fox hunting in a snowy field: it pauses, listens, then pounces on a mouse or vole it has heard moving under the surface.

• Great horned owls settling on nests

  Some lay eggs in January; most Colorado pairs in February and March · Cottonwood groves, windbreaks, cliff ledges and old hawk nests statewide

  The hooting duets of December lead quickly to nesting. A Louisville nest followed by the Colorado Avian Research and Rehabilitation Institute shows the pattern: the institute calls the species one of the earliest-nesting birds in North America and says it is common to find great horned owls on nests in January, though many Colorado pairs wait until February or March. Incubation takes about 35 days, almost all of it by the female. Look for a pair of ear tufts poking over the rim of an old stick nest. If you find one, watch from a long way back and keep the spot to yourself, because a female flushed off her eggs on a frigid night leaves them exposed.

Which birds tough out a Colorado January in the mountains?

• The American dipper

  All winter, wherever streams stay open · Fast, clear mountain creeks and rivers, especially in narrow canyons; Rocky Mountain National Park features it on its bird page

  Audubon’s field guide describes how the dipper feeds: it walks into rushing water with only its head under, or dives and “flies” underwater, walking on the bottom and probing under stones. Yellowstone’s biologists credit thick down and oil from a preen gland for keeping it dry. Some dippers move a little downslope in winter, but they stay as long as the current stays open, and they keep singing a loud, bubbling song that carries over the noise of the water. Stand quietly by a riffle and watch for a slate-gray bird bobbing up and down on a rock.

• Rosy-finch flocks

  Mid-winter, especially after storms · Wind-scoured ridges, open roadsides and feeders in mountain towns

  Colorado’s own rosy-finch, the brown-capped, nests on high cliffs and snowfields and comes down when snow and ice cover its food, then heads back upslope after feeding. A CPW study from 2018 to 2020 estimated between about 116,000 and 149,000 of them across Colorado’s mountain ranges, a healthy number for a bird with such a small world, though the agency worries that a warming climate will shrink the snow patches it depends on in summer. From mid-November to early February, the Colorado Avian Research and Rehabilitation Institute finds the flocks made up mostly of gray-crowned and black rosy-finches from farther north, with a few brown-capped birds among them. Report sightings to CPW; the species is on the state’s highest-priority conservation list largely because so little is known about it.

Why do aspens have black scars, and what are elk and moose eating in deep snow?

• Reading an aspen grove

  Any winter walk; fresh gnawing is pale and moist · Aspen groves in the foothills and mountains, especially near elk winter range around Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park

  Look at the bark between knee and head height. Fresh feeding shows as pale grooves where the green layer has been scraped away; older damage turns black and rough, sometimes around much of the trunk. Not every black mark means elk, though: Bryce Canyon’s rangers point out that aspens also scar where lower branches drop off naturally, and those marks sit where a branch used to be. Count how many trunks in a grove carry feeding scars, and you have a rough measure of how hard the elk have leaned on it in past winters.

• Moose in the willows

  All winter; moose stay put for days when food is good · North Park around Walden, the Kawuneeche Valley along Highway 34 in Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Mesa and other willow bottoms

  Colorado now has more than 3,000 moose, descended mainly from 24 animals moved from Utah and Wyoming to North Park in 1978. In winter, CPW says, they live on willows, which also give them shelter, and they rarely leave their home range. Rocky Mountain National Park has seen some moose return to the same willow patch on nearly the same winter date each year. The park adds that bulls begin dropping their antlers in late fall to save energy, so many January bulls are bare-headed. Moose in deep snow will use packed trails and ski tracks and will not step aside: CPW asks people to go around or wait, and to keep dogs leashed, because a moose treats a dog like a wolf.

What tracks turn up in Colorado snow in January, and how do you know a mountain lion’s?

• Mountain lion

  Mornings after new snow · Foothill canyons, ridgelines and deer winter range from the Front Range to the Western Slope

  A lion print runs about 3 inches across for a female and up to 5 for a male, with four toes and, usually, no claw marks, because a lion’s claws retract. The stride is long, 30 to 40 inches for a female and 40 to 50 for a male according to CPW, much longer than a bobcat’s or a lynx’s. A round print with no claws and a long, purposeful line of them heading along a ridge or canyon bottom is worth photographing next to a glove or a ruler for scale. If you find fresh lion tracks while out with children, keep them close and head back.

• Tracks under the snow

  All winter · Subalpine forest and meadows where the snow is deep

  Much of winter life in the mountains happens out of sight. Voles and mice keep busy in runways beneath the snowpack, insulated from the bitter air above, and their hunters come looking for them. CPW notes that the marten, a slim weasel of old spruce, fir and lodgepole forest, takes red-backed voles on the ground and stays active all winter, denning in a tree hole or a squirrel’s nest in the coldest snaps. Look for small holes where a trail of paired prints disappears into the snow and comes back out a few yards later. Snowshoe hare and weasel tracks were in our December guide; this month, try following a fox line until it ends in a pounce mark.

How cold does Colorado get in January, and where is the snow deepest?

Does a strong El Niño mean a colder January in Colorado?

When does the sun start setting after 5 p.m. in Colorado?

What is in the Colorado night sky in January 2027?

• The Quadrantids

  Night of Sunday, January 3, into Monday, January 4; best before dawn Monday · Any dark site away from town lights; meteors appear all over the sky

  The Quadrantids are a brief, sharp shower, with a peak only about six hours long, and 2027 sets them up well. Predictions put the peak on Sunday evening in Mountain time, around 8:30 p.m. according to the American Meteor Society, with another forecast a couple of hours later. The radiant, the point the meteors seem to come from, starts out low after dark and gains height hour by hour, which means the best rates in Colorado should come in the dark hours before dawn on Monday. Moonlight barely matters, because the waning sliver does not clear the horizon until the last hours of the night. Away from town lights, dozens an hour is a realistic hope.

• Perihelion and Venus at its best

  Saturday, January 2, 7:33 p.m. MST; Venus all month before dawn · Venus in the southeast before sunrise

  Our planet passes perihelion, its nearest point to the Sun, on the evening of January 2, about 91.4 million miles out: proof, if anyone needs it, that seasons come from the tilt of Earth’s axis and not from how far away the Sun is. The next morning, January 3, Venus swings farthest west of the Sun in our sky, 47 degrees, and blazes in the southeast before dawn; a small telescope shows it half lit.

• The Wolf Moon, the closest full moon of 2027

  Full at 5:17 a.m. MST, Friday, January 22 · Rising in the east around sunset on the 21st

  The Moon reaches full before sunrise Friday, which makes Thursday night, January 21, the best time to watch it ride high across the sky; it still looks full on Friday evening. Perigee, its closest point in this orbit, comes roughly 14 hours ahead of the full phase, so this is the nearest and largest full moon of the year, about 222,200 miles away. On the evening of Saturday, January 23, the Moon sits close to bright Jupiter, which reaches opposition on February 10.

• Planets and northern lights

  All month · Saturn in the southwest after dark; Mercury low in the west-southwest at month’s end

  Saturn is low in the southwest in the early evening and sinking. Late in the month Mercury starts its best evening appearance of the winter, low in the west-southwest about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. Jupiter, the brightest point in the evening east, is up for most of the night. Solar activity has eased since the 11-year cycle peaked in 2024, but the Sun is still lively, and a strong geomagnetic storm could paint aurora low in the northern sky over Colorado; check the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center if one is forecast.

What can families do outdoors in Colorado in January 2027?

Safety notes for January in Colorado