What to look for in nature in Illinois this January

How cold and snowy is January in Illinois?

• The coldest reading ever taken in Illinois

  January 31, 2019 · Mount Carroll, Carroll County, northwest Illinois

  During the polar vortex outbreak at the end of January 2019, the cooperative weather observer at Mount Carroll read −38 °F. A national panel, the State Climate Extremes Committee, later accepted it as the new statewide record, beating the −36 °F set at Congerville on January 5, 1999. Its report noted a textbook setup for a deep freeze: clear skies, light winds and snow cover. Both records fell in January, which says something about the month.

• Ice on Lake Michigan

  Builds through January; usually near its seasonal peak in mid to late February · The Chicago shoreline, harbors and Illinois Beach State Park

  In a cold spell, slush and pancake ice gather along the Chicago lakefront, and wind can stack broken plates into ridges against the breakwalls. NOAA scientists note that the Great Lakes usually approach their seasonal ice maximum in mid to late February, so January is the building phase. Enjoy it from the shore and keep children off the piled ice; it can hide open water and break without warning.

Where can you see the most bald eagles in Illinois in January?

• Tailwaters of the Mississippi locks

  All month, best in the morning; most crowded after a hard freeze · Mississippi River locks and dams from the Quad Cities to Alton, including Lock and Dam 18 near Gladstone and Lock and Dam 21 at Quincy

  Rangers from the Rock Island District count the birds at their locks every Wednesday morning from December into February and post the tallies online, so you can check where numbers are building before you set out. Scan the big shoreline trees for perched birds, then wait: sooner or later one glides down to the boiling water below the gates, grabs a fish with its feet and flaps back to a branch to eat.

• Starved Rock and Plum Island

  January to early March · The Illinois Waterway Visitor Center across the river from Starved Rock State Park, near Ottawa and Utica

  Below the Starved Rock Lock and Dam on the Illinois River, eagles fish the open water and roost on Plum Island, a 55-acre uninhabited island just downstream from Ottawa that you can see from the top of Starved Rock. The Corps' Illinois Waterway Visitor Center sits across the river from the park, and on the Eagle Watch Weekend, Starved Rock Audubon members set up spotting scopes there and talk about the island's history as an eagle sanctuary.

• The confluence near Alton and Grafton

  Late December to early March · The Great River Road between Alton and Grafton; Pere Marquette State Park

  The regional tourism bureau ranks the meeting of the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri rivers among the country's premier eagle wintering areas, and says a drive along the bluffs can turn up 25 to 150 eagles. Use the marked pull-offs only.

• The midwinter count

  The first two weeks of January · Fixed routes along rivers and reservoirs statewide

  Volunteers have tallied wintering eagles nationwide since the National Wildlife Federation launched a coordinated count in 1979. Each counter repeats a fixed route in the first two weeks of January, and the survey is now run by the Army Corps. Local clubs run their own censuses as well. On January 9, 2026, Champaign County Audubon members counted 43 bald eagles between Havana and Beardstown on the Illinois River, 26 adults, 16 immatures and one unidentified, with several thousand greater white-fronted geese and a few dozen trumpeter swans thrown in.

When are the eagle festivals in Illinois in 2027?

• Quad City Bald Eagle Days

  Friday, January 8, 4 to 8 p.m.; Saturday, January 9, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, January 10, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. · QCCA Event Center, 2621 4th Avenue, Rock Island

  Live eagle and raptor programs, conservation exhibits, nature vendors and intertribal dancing fill the hall. Quad City Audubon leads free 45-minute bus trips to see wild eagles on Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $7 for adults and $1 for ages 6 to 15; children 5 and under get in free.

• Alton Eagle Ice Festival

  Saturday, January 9, 2027, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. · Flock Food Truck Park, 210 Ridge Street, Alton, with eagle activities around town

  Now in its 18th year, this free festival mixes ice carving and food with live eagle meet-and-greets. In past winters the area has also offered free meet-and-greets with live eagles at the Alton and Grafton visitor centers and guided eagle shuttle tours along the river road; ask the bureau at 618-465-6676 for this season's dates.

• Starved Rock Eagle Watch Weekend

  Saturday and Sunday, January 30 and 31, 2027, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. · Starved Rock Lodge, the state park visitor center, the Illinois Waterway Visitor Center and the Utica Village Hall

  Admission is free. Raptor rehabilitation groups bring live birds of prey to four sites linked by a trolley loop, kids can dissect owl pellets, and Audubon volunteers staff scopes at the lock. The lodge offers a guided winter hike at 10 a.m. both days for a fee.

• Pere Marquette Bald Eagle Festival and eagle mornings

  Annual festival, usually a Sunday in late January; reserved eagle programs on many winter mornings · Pere Marquette State Park and lodge, Grafton

  The lodge has held an indoor Bald Eagle Festival with live raptor shows in late January in past winters, but its 2027 date was not on the lodge's own events page in early October, so check with the lodge before you plan around it. Separately, the park runs reservation-only eagle mornings that start with an 8:30 a.m. talk at the visitor center and then head out to watch birds along the river; last winter's ran into early March. Call the park for this season's dates.

• Great River Eagle Days in Quincy

  Annual, usually a weekend in late January · Oakley-Lindsay Center, downtown Quincy, with viewing at Lock and Dam 21

  The 2026 edition, the 13th, ran January 24 and 25, with live raptors, Native American dancing and a blessing of the eagle ceremony, while Corps rangers set up free scopes at Lock and Dam 21. The 2027 date had not been posted when this guide was written; check with See Quincy.

Where do ducks, geese and swans spend January in Illinois?

• Diving ducks off the Chicago lakefront

  All winter, wherever the lake stays open · Northerly Island, Montrose Harbor, the Jackson Park harbors, Illinois Beach State Park

  When the Chicago Ornithological Society held its first Winter Waterfowl Watch at Northerly Island on January 10, 2026, more than 200 people turned out, despite poor weather, to see common goldeneyes, red-breasted mergansers, greater and lesser scaup, redheads and canvasbacks. The club says it will now run the event every year; watch its calendar for the 2027 date. Male goldeneyes are easy to learn: a glossy dark head, a white cheek patch near the bill, a yellow eye, and a body that looks white at a distance.

• White-fronted geese and trumpeter swans

  Through January, moving with the ice · The Illinois River backwaters between Havana and Beardstown, including Anderson Lake and Sanganois

  Champaign County Audubon's January census of this stretch found several thousand greater white-fronted geese and several dozen trumpeter swans in 2026. White-fronts have orange legs, a pink bill and a white band at its base; trumpeters are pure white with a long, straight black bill and are much bigger than any goose.

What is winter like in the swamps and refuges of southern Illinois?

• Horseshoe Lake's goose refuge

  Fall through winter · Horseshoe Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area, Alexander County, near Miller City

  The state bought the first 49 acres here in 1927 to protect Canada geese, and the area is still managed as a winter refuge for them; over the decades biologists have trapped, banded and released more than 50,000 birds. IDNR says fall and winter visitors see large numbers of waterfowl and bald eagles, framed by bald cypress, tupelo gum and swamp cottonwood around the lake's oxbow.

• Bare cypress in the Cache River swamps

  All winter · Cache River State Natural Area, including Heron Pond and Little Black Slough; Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refuge

  Unlike pines, bald cypress sheds its needles each fall, so in January the swamps look like a forest of gray masts standing in black water. IDNR says many of the Cache River trees are more than a thousand years old, with buttressed bases more than 40 feet around, and the wetlands are recognized under the Ramsar Convention as internationally important. Winter is a good time to look for the small, round cones, which the Morton Arboretum notes stay on the branches into the cold months. The neighboring Cypress Creek refuge serves as a winter feeding and resting area for waterfowl.

Which Illinois animals start courting in the middle of winter?

• Great horned owls on eggs

  Nesting can begin in January · Old hawk, crow or squirrel nests, tree cavities and even buildings, statewide

  IDNR lists the great horned owl among the earliest nesting birds in the state; a pair may be sitting on two or three round white eggs before the month is out. Listen at dusk for the male's deep hooting and a female answering in a slightly higher voice. Should you spot a nest, keep well back, because an owl flushed off its eggs leaves them exposed to the cold.

• Red foxes pairing up

  Breeding from January into early February · Field edges, cemeteries, golf courses and quiet suburbs

  Wildlife Illinois says red foxes breed from January through early February; after a gestation of seven or eight weeks the kits are born from late March into April, often in an old woodchuck den. In fresh snow, fox prints run in a nearly straight line, much like a small coyote's. Watch open fields at dusk for a fox standing still, head cocked, then springing to pounce on a vole under the snow.

• River otters sliding

  All winter; kits are born from January to May · Streams, rivers and backwaters, now in every county

  Fewer than 100 otters were left in Illinois in 1989; after reintroductions in the 1990s they came off the state's threatened list in 2004. On snow and ice they bound and slide, leaving belly troughs 10 to 20 feet long between sets of webbed prints 2½ to 3½ inches wide.

Will winter finches come to Illinois this year?

• Pine siskins and purple finches

  Any time in winter, often in flocks · Feeders with nyjer or sunflower; conifer plantings, alders and birches

  The forecast notes days with over a thousand siskins at Hawk Ridge, Minnesota, and a very good northern white cedar crop around the Great Lakes, which siskins love; it also expects many purple finches to move into the Great Lakes region, though good seed crops tend to keep birds farther north. Look for small, streaky siskins showing a yellow wing stripe when they fly; a male purple finch is washed all over in a soft rosy red, with less streaking below than a house finch.

• Redpolls, grosbeaks and crossbills

  Unpredictable; watch eBird alerts · Weedy fields, birches, conifer groves, feeders in the north

  The forecast calls for a small to modest redpoll flight, mostly in the western Great Lakes, evening grosbeaks that a good mountain-ash crop may hold farther north, and crossbills that could wander the region in search of cones. Any of them would be a fine find in northern Illinois; check pine and spruce plantings in arboretums and cemeteries.

• Count your feeder

  Through April 30 · Your own yard or a nearby park

  For Project FeederWatch, you watch on two consecutive days, no more than once a week, and send in the most individuals of each species seen at one time. Those numbers are how researchers learn whether a forecast came true.

When does the sun start setting later in Illinois?

What can you see in the Illinois night sky in January 2027?

• The Quadrantids

  Active December 28 to January 12; peak the night of Sunday, January 3, into Monday, January 4 · A dark site away from town lights, facing northeast; best in the hours before dawn

  Forecasters place the narrow peak somewhere between about 9:30 p.m. and midnight CST on January 3. The radiant, between the Big Dipper's handle and the old constellation of Boötes, sits low in the evening and climbs high by the small hours, so expect the most meteors in the predawn hours of Monday. A crescent moon, roughly one-sixth illuminated, stays below the horizon until late. Under a truly dark sky you might see dozens an hour; in town, far fewer.

• Perihelion

  Saturday, January 2, 8:33 p.m. CST · No special viewing; it is a fact to note

  The planet passes nearest the sun for the year, roughly 91.4 million miles out, in the depths of northern winter; seasons come from Earth's tilt, not its distance.

• Venus in the morning

  All month; greatest western elongation Sunday, January 3 · Low in the southeast before sunrise

  On Sunday, January 3, Venus pulls 47 degrees clear of the sun, its widest gap of this morning season, and blazes at about magnitude −4.3; after the moon, nothing in the night sky outshines it. Aim a small telescope at it and you will see a lit half, like a first-quarter moon in miniature.

• The Wolf Moon, the closest full moon of 2027

  Full at 6:17 a.m. CST on Friday, January 22 · Rising in the east-northeast at dusk on January 21

  Perigee, the moon's nearest point, comes about 14½ hours ahead of full, so this is the year's nearest and biggest-looking full moon, about 222,229 miles away. Catch moonrise on Thursday evening, January 21; on Friday evening it still appears round. On Saturday, January 23, the moon, just past full, sits close to Jupiter in the evening sky, with the star Regulus nearby.

• Evening planets

  All month · Saturn in the southwest after dark; Jupiter in the east by mid-evening; Mercury low in the west-southwest at month's end

  Saturn slips lower into the dusk each week. Jupiter, which reaches opposition in February, clears the eastern horizon a little sooner every night and by mid-evening is the brightest point in that part of the sky; reddish Mars, also building toward opposition, keeps it company in Leo. Toward month's end, Mercury may show itself as a small spark low toward the west-southwest in the deepening dusk. The darkest evenings for faint stars fall around the new moon of January 7.

What can Illinois families do outside in January?

Safety notes for January in Illinois