What to look for in nature in Delaware this November

When do the snow geese and tundra swans reach Delaware?

• Snow geese settle in for the winter

  Building through the month; the big flocks from late November · Bombay Hook, Prime Hook and the farm fields of Kent and Sussex

  Most snow geese reach the Delmarva Peninsula in the second half of November, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program. These are plump white geese with black wingtips, a pink bill marked with a dark “grin patch,” and red legs; the darker “blue geese” mixed in are the same species, a genetic color form once thought to be a separate bird. They dig roots out of marsh grasses with serrated bills and graze in fields for grain and clover, which is why a flock can lift off a cornfield as easily as off the marsh.

• Tundra swans

  Late autumn through early spring · Trap Pond and the ponds and fields of Sussex County; tidal shallows along the bay

  Delaware State Parks says waterfowl and tundra swans are abundant at Trap Pond in the winter months. The Chesapeake Bay Program describes the tundra swan as about four and a half feet long with a wingspan over five feet, a black bill often with a small yellow spot near the eye, and a neck held straight. That straight neck and black bill separate it from the orange-billed mute swan, which lives here all year and curves its neck. Families travel together, and the cygnets are as big as their parents but brownish gray. Flocks are often heard first, a soft, high whooping overhead.

• Diving ducks on the ponds

  From November on · Mill ponds, Lums Pond, the Inland Bays, Bombay Hook’s pools

  Buffleheads, small black-and-white divers that spring straight up off the water, and hooded mergansers, whose males raise a white fan of a crest, settle on ponds and tidal shallows from autumn to spring, says the Chesapeake Bay Program. Any Sussex mill pond is worth a stop.

Which hawks and eagles fly over Delaware in November?

• Red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks

  Late October through November · Ashland Hawk Watch, Hockessin

  Ashland averages 805 red-tails a season; its best single day was 620 on November 4, 2012. Red-shouldered hawks average 497, and the site’s record day for them came only last year, 275 on November 20, 2025. Red-tails are chunky, broad-winged buteos with a dark band across a pale belly; red-shoulders show translucent crescents near the wingtips and a banded black-and-white tail.

• Golden eagles

  Late October and November · Ashland; occasionally Cape Henlopen

  Only about 11 golden eagles pass Ashland in an average season, and the three best days on record were all between November 2 and 4. Cape Henlopen’s average is seven. Look for a big, dark eagle with a golden nape, holding its wings in a slight V; immature birds flash white at the tail base and in the middle of each wing. The counter on the hill is the person to ask.

• Vultures and bald eagles

  All month · Both hawk watches; bayshore marshes

  Turkey vultures average 2,282 a season at Ashland, with the top day, 556, on November 3, 2023. Black vultures have their best days there in November too. Bald eagles move all autumn, with a season average of 436 at Ashland; by December, the Bombay Hook calendar says, they are often seen perched on bare branches over the marsh.

What winter birds arrive on the Delaware coast in November?

• Sea ducks and purple sandpipers at Indian River Inlet

  Late fall into early spring · Delaware Seashore State Park, north and south sides of the inlet

  State Parks calls Indian River Inlet the best place to begin for purple sandpipers, stocky gray shorebirds that feed on the wet rocks of the jetties from late fall to early spring, and for winter rafts of scoters and common eiders, with now and then a harlequin duck. The Delaware Ornithological Society holds a free Sea Watch there on Sunday, November 8, 8 a.m. to noon, meeting at the South Inlet parking area; bring a scope if you have one and dress for wind.

• Brant on the Inland Bays

  Winter · Rehoboth, Indian River and Little Assawoman bays; marsh edges and lawns near the water

  Brant are small, dark geese with a white “necklace” that breed farther north than any other goose and winter in coastal lagoons behind barrier beaches, says the Chesapeake Bay Program. They travel and stay together as families inside the larger flock and feed on eelgrass, sedges and algae, and since the eelgrass die-off of the 1930s they have learned to graze on grass ashore as well. Delaware’s Inland Bays, shallow lagoons behind the barrier beach, are that kind of place. Their low, rolling calls carry a long way across the water.

• Gannets and loons off the Point

  Fall migration into winter · The Point and Herring Point, Cape Henlopen State Park

  State Parks recommends both overlooks in autumn for passing gannets, loons and sea ducks, and again in winter for gulls and waterbirds resting offshore. Gannets are the big white seabirds with black wingtips that fold up and plunge from height; a calm morning with the light behind you makes them easy to follow.

• Learn the surf, or walk the bridge

  November 5, 12, 14 and 19 · Delaware Seashore State Park

  The park’s Intro to Surf Fishing class, 9 a.m. to noon on November 5, 14 and 19 ($25, ages 12 and up, gear and bait provided), covers fish identification and casting. On Thursday evenings, November 5 and 12, a guided 5 p.m. walk over the Indian River Inlet Bridge ($6) explains how the inlet has shifted over two centuries. Register at 302-227-6991, and confirm the dates with the park, since programs change.

What is happening with Delaware’s deer in November?

• Chronic wasting disease reaches Delaware

  First confirmed April 21, 2026 · Central and southern Sussex County

  This is the first firearm season since the disease was found in the state. DNREC announced Delaware’s first case of chronic wasting disease, in a hunter-harvested deer from Sussex County, on April 21, 2026; a third case, just east of the Jones Crossroads Landfill near Georgetown, followed on September 16. The disease is a fatal, untreatable illness of the brain and nervous system of deer and their relatives, spread through saliva, urine, feces and blood, directly or through contaminated ground. Health officials know of no case of it passing to people, though the CDC advises testing harvested deer before eating them.

• What the management zone means

  Emergency rules in effect since August 17 · Wildlife Management Zones 11, 14 and 16, including Midlands Wildlife Area and Trap Pond State Park

  Inside the zone it is now illegal to bait or feed deer, and fawns found there may not be rehabilitated and moved. Statewide, buck lures made from natural deer urine are banned. Deer taken in the original management zone during the November 13–22 firearm season must be checked in at the Jones Crossroads Landfill near Georgetown or the Gumboro Service Center (Zone 11 joined the zone in September, so hunters there should confirm the current rules with DNREC); free testing is open to hunters statewide.

• If you see a sick deer

  Any time · Anywhere in the state

  DNREC lists the late signs as dramatic weight loss, stumbling, a drooping head and ears, heavy drooling and a loss of fear of people. Do not touch or move the animal; report it through DNREC’s sick and injured wildlife reporting form. Never feed wild deer, wherever you live.

Will winter finches visit Delaware feeders this year?

• Purple finch and pine siskin

  Late fall and winter, if at all · Feeders with black-oil sunflower and nyjer; sweetgum and tulip-tree seed heads

  The forecast expects a late-developing small flight of purple finches into the mid-Atlantic at best, and a small to moderate siskin flight toward the southeastern states. Male purple finches look dipped in raspberry; siskins are streaky brown finches with yellow edging on wings and tail, and they love sweetgum balls.

• Red crossbills, maybe, late in the winter

  Late winter · Pines along the coast

  The one Delaware mention in this year’s forecast: Type 2 red crossbills, which are moving east, could drift down the coast to Long Island, Cape May, Delaware and beyond in late winter as cone supplies run low. Check the loblolly and pitch pines at Cape Henlopen and the Inland Bays, and listen for a sharp, repeated “kip.” Red-breasted nuthatches, which pushed far south last year, are expected to stay north this time.

• Project FeederWatch begins November 1

  November 1 through April 30 · Your yard, balcony or schoolyard

  Count on any two days in a row, up to weekly, noting for each species the most birds you saw together at one moment; Cornell says even one count in the whole season is useful, and a yard without a feeder qualifies. It is the easiest way to find out whether this really is a quiet finch winter.

What is left on Delaware’s trees in November?

• The baldcypress drop their needles

  November · Trap Pond State Park and the Great Cypress Swamp

  After going golden brown, the baldcypress at Trap Pond let their needles fall; the tree is a conifer that sheds its foliage each year, so the water trails open up to the sky. Without leaves overhead, the knees rising from the water stand out, and so do the tundra swans and wood ducks that winter on the pond.

• Holly berries and pine cones

  Holly fruit ripens September to December · Coastal woods, Cape Henlopen, Redden State Forest, older yards

  American holly is the evergreen with spiny, leathery leaves; only female trees carry the red berries, which hang on all winter and feed birds, squirrels and deer, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program. Loblolly pine, the tall coastal pine with needles in bundles of three, carries prickly brown cones that take until their second October to mature.

• Oaks are the last to let go

  Through November and beyond · Piedmont woods and Sussex forests

  White oaks, with their seven to nine rounded lobes, turn red late in the season, and their acorns germinate in autumn soon after they fall. Many oaks, and young beeches especially, often hold dry brown leaves well into winter, so a November woods is a mix of bare maples and tulip trees and rattling oaks.

Has Delaware usually had its first freeze by November?

How much daylight does Delaware lose in November?

How cold is a Delaware November, and what will El Niño do to the winter?

What is in the night sky over Delaware in November 2026?

• The Beaver Moon, a supermoon

  Evenings of Monday, November 23, and Tuesday, November 24 · Rising in the east-northeast around sunset

  Perigee, the Moon’s closest approach, follows the full phase by roughly a day and a quarter, which makes this a small supermoon; December’s Cold Moon, full on the 23rd, swings closer. On the night of the 23rd the full Moon passes close to or over the Pleiades, though its glare drowns the cluster. White Clay Creek State Park’s naturalist leads a Full Moon Friday evening hike on November 20, 6 to 7:30 p.m., from the Carpenter Recreation Area; register at 302-368-6900.

• Leonid meteors

  Best from after moonset to dawn, morning of Wednesday, November 18 · Look high in the east and south before dawn

  The International Meteor Organization’s calendar expects the Leonids to peak on the evening of November 17 (6:45 p.m. EST), with a rate near 15 an hour under dark skies and nothing unusual forecast for 2026. Over Delaware the half-lit Moon goes down around half past midnight local time, and the radiant in Leo climbs until dawn, so the hours before first light on the 18th are best, with the 17th and 19th worth a look too. Leonids are fast, and the bright ones leave trains.

• Taurid fireballs

  Southern Taurids peak November 5; Northern Taurids November 12 · Anywhere dark, most of the night

  Only five to ten an hour, but slow and sometimes very bright. Between the two peaks the Moon is new (November 9), so the sky is dark. The Taurids are crumbs of Comet Encke, which will itself brighten into binocular range early next year.

• Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Mercury before dawn

  All month; Mars and Jupiter closest November 15–16 · East and southeast before sunrise

  Venus, now a morning object, rises earlier each day, reaching its greatest brilliancy in the last week of November. Look for it beside Spica, the brightest star of Virgo, before dawn on November 9, only about a degree apart. In Leo, Mars and Jupiter pass within about 1.2 degrees of each other before dawn on the 15th and 16th, and the best mornings for Mercury, just above the east-southeast horizon in twilight, run from roughly the 18th to the 25th.

• Saturn and Uranus in the evening

  All month; Uranus at opposition November 25 · South and southwest after dark

  After dark, Saturn has the evening sky to itself among the bright planets, shining without a twinkle in the faint stars of Pisces. Uranus reaches opposition on November 25, near the Pleiades in Taurus, a faint green-blue dot for binoculars with a star chart.

What can families do outdoors in Delaware in November 2026?

Safety notes for November in Delaware