What to look for in nature in Iowa this December

Where can you see bald eagles in Iowa in December?

• Lock and Dam 14 at LeClaire

  Gathering from December, as ice forms; staying into late February or early March · Mississippi River just off Highway 67, south of Interstate 80, Scott County

  LeClaire’s tourism office says the eagles begin to collect on the south side of the dam once ice starts to form in December. Next to the dam, The Nature Conservancy’s Lock and Dam No. 14 Eagle Area protects a strip of riverside woods (cottonwood, silver maple, sycamore and river birch) where the eagles roost; the families who gave the land worked out its management with the Army Corps of Engineers.

• Highway 61 and Lock and Dam 18

  December through February; mornings are best · Highway 61 from Mediapolis to Burlington; Flint Creek at Starr’s Cave; Lock and Dam 18 near Gladstone, Illinois

  Des Moines County Conservation calls December through February the peak season around Burlington and lists the treetops along Highway 61, Flint Creek at Starr’s Cave and the levee near the 4th Pumping Station campground as reliable spots. Numbers swing with the weather: mild winters bring fewer, while in cold winters the county says as many as 1,000 eagles may gather. Its main Eagle Watch comes in January, but the birds are already here by Christmas.

• Below Saylorville Dam

  Late fall through early spring · Des Moines River below Saylorville Dam, north of Des Moines

  Central Iowa has its own version. The tailwater below the Corps of Engineers dam at Saylorville stays open in hard cold, and a BirdWatching site guide lists bald eagles at Saylorville from fall through spring alongside winter gulls and waterfowl.

• DeSoto and the Missouri

  Peak in early December; a second peak in early March · DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri Valley, Harrison County

  On the western border, the refuge expects its eagle numbers to top out in early December, when the tail of the snow goose flight is still on DeSoto Lake. Scan from the visitor center windows (open Tuesdays through Saturdays, closed Christmas Day), the Missouri River Overlook or the Bob Starr Wildlife Overlook. The refuge itself is open from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset. A few miles south, the Hitchcock Nature Center hawk watch keeps counting into mid-December, and its HawkCount record shows some of its biggest bald eagle days in early December.

When is the Christmas Bird Count in Iowa, and how can you join?

• What the 125th count found

  125th count, December 2024 to January 2025 · 35 count circles statewide

  Iowa’s regional editor reported 139 species, a few below the state average. Davenport and Saylorville tied for the most, 94 each, followed by Muscatine (92) and Keokuk (88); DeSoto led the western counts with 79 and Northwest Clayton County led the north with 62. Seventeen regular species set state records. More than 5,000 trumpeter swans were counted statewide and more than 2,000 tundra swans at Clinton and Princeton, while canvasbacks ran well below their average. Bald eagles “counted extremely well,” barred owls came close to a record, and the season’s only snowy owl was a count-week bird at Iowa City. Fog, rain and icy roads hampered the first weekend, and only eight counts had any snow on the ground.

• The record to beat

  Set in the 124th count, 2023–24 · Saylorville, north of Des Moines

  In the 124th count, Saylorville found 102 species, the highest total ever on an Iowa count, during what the editor described as Iowa’s warmest December since 1889. The statewide list that winter reached 154 species, a record.

• Joining a count

  Sign up in early December; counts run December 14 to January 5 · Any of the state’s count circles

  The Iowa Ornithologists’ Union keeps a calendar of the season’s counts on its website, which compilers fill in as they set their dates; as of early October it was still empty. Audubon’s online map lists each circle with its compiler’s contact. The Iowa City count, held every year since 1951, shows how it works: small field parties go out with an experienced leader, people inside the circle can count their own feeders, and everyone meets at midday to compare notes. In 2025 its sign-ups closed four days before the count.

Which owls can you find in Iowa in winter?

• Great horned owls start the year early

  Hooting through December; eggs often in January · Woodlots, river timber, shelterbelts and town parks statewide

  The great horned owl is Iowa’s earliest-nesting bird of prey, and the DNR notes it often lays its eggs in January, frequently in an old red-tailed hawk nest. That means pairs are claiming territory now, and the deep, muffled series of hoots carries a long way on a still December night. In winter these owls sometimes stash extra prey; when hungry, they sit on the frozen cache to thaw it before eating.

• Saw-whet and long-eared owls in the cedars

  Winter visitors, roosting by day · Dense redcedar and pine stands, especially near grassland

  Northern saw-whet owls, about 8 inches tall and weighing some 3 ounces, are a common winter visitor that roosts in cedars and other conifers. Long-eared owls, listed as threatened in Iowa, also arrive for winter and often roost together, returning to the same few groves year after year. Both are easiest to find by their sign: whitewash on the branches and gray pellets of fur and bone on the ground below. If you find one, look from a distance and leave quietly.

• Snowy owls, some winters

  Irregular; in irruption years sightings can start by late November · Open farm country, airports, big flat fields

  The heaviest owl in North America breeds on the Arctic tundra, and when lemmings there run short, young snowy owls push south. In those years Iowa’s flat open land suits them, and they hunt by day from fence posts, field-edge mounds and grain bins. Nobody can predict an irruption months ahead; the 125th Christmas Bird Count in Iowa found just one, and only as a count-week bird. Report any you see to eBird, and give the bird plenty of room.

• Short-eared owls over the grasslands

  Late afternoon in winter · Large grasslands in southern and western Iowa

  Once a common nesting bird of Iowa’s prairies, the short-eared owl is now mainly a winter visitor and is listed as endangered in the state. Look for it at dusk over big grassland tracts, coursing low on floppy, moth-like wingbeats, often where northern harriers hunt by day.

Which evergreens are native to Iowa, and where do the rare ones grow?

• Eastern redcedar, everywhere

  All winter; berries persist · Bluffs, pastures, fence lines and old fields statewide

  Extension foresters call it probably the most important conifer in Iowa, native to every part of the state. Look for shaggy, reddish bark that peels in strips, twigs that feel square, and two kinds of leaves: tiny scales pressed flat and sharper, spreading awl-shaped ones. The dusty blue “berries” are really fleshy cones, and they hang on through winter as food for cedar waxwings and many other birds, which spread the seeds along fence rows.

• White pine on the northeast bluffs

  All year · Steep slopes of the Driftless; isolated native stands in Hardin and Muscatine counties

  White pine is the one native pine, and the easiest conifer to name: soft, bluish needles 3 to 5 inches long in bundles of five, and long, slender cones with no prickles. Its natural home is the sandy or rocky slopes and ridges of northeast Iowa, though it has been planted so widely that you will see it across the state.

• Balsam fir and yew on the ice-age slopes

  The slopes take in cold air through the winter · Algific talus slopes in northeast Iowa; most refuge units are closed to the public

  A few slopes in the Driftless hold plants that normally grow in a colder, more northern climate. The Fish and Wildlife Service explains how: in summer, air sinks through sinkholes, passes over ice in the rock and blows out of vents on the slopes, holding them between just above freezing and about 55 °F. In winter the flow runs the other way, cold air is drawn into the vents and the groundwater freezes again, recharging the system for next summer. Balsam fir and yew survive there, and so does the Iowa Pleistocene snail, a quarter-inch relict known only from fossils until 1955. Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge protects many of these sites, which are too fragile for visitors; the forested bluffs of Yellow River State Forest and Pikes Peak give a sense of the country.

How do Iowa’s animals get through winter?

• True hibernators

  Through midwinter · Burrows, caves and dens

  Woodchucks, ground squirrels, some mice and the bats in Iowa’s caves are true hibernators: heart rate, breathing, body temperature and metabolism all drop far below normal for weeks at a time.

• Sleepers that wake up

  Cold snaps, from a few days to two weeks · Hollow logs, dens, attics and culverts

  Raccoons, skunks, badgers and chipmunks do not truly hibernate. They hole up through a cold spell in a deep sleep that can last days to a couple of weeks, then come out on mild nights.

• Frogs, turtles and fish below

  All winter · Pond bottoms, mud, leaf litter

  Cold-blooded animals burrow below the frost line or into the mud of a pond or lake bottom and slow their bodies almost to a stop. Gray treefrogs go further, making glycerol and other chemicals that work like antifreeze in their blood. Fish simply take the temperature of the water, and because ice forms on top and floats, the deeper water stays liquid and livable.

• Life under the snow

  Whenever snow covers the ground · Grassy fields, prairie plantings, yards

  Mice and voles tunnel through the space beneath the snow, where it is warmer than the open air and they are hidden from hawks and owls. Deer and wild turkeys feed hard before a storm, then wait it out in the shelter of evergreens, often on south-facing slopes that catch the low sun. After a fresh snow, a walk along a field edge reads like a newspaper: a fox’s single straight line, a cottontail’s paired back feet ahead of its front feet, the place where a vole tunnel surfaces.

How much snow does Iowa get in December, and what could El Niño change?

When is the earliest sunset in Iowa?

What can you see in Iowa’s night sky in December?

• The Geminids

  Active December 4–20; best on the night of Sunday, December 13, into Monday morning · Radiant in Gemini, up in the east by mid-evening

  The International Meteor Organization expects a rate of about 150 an hour under ideal skies at the peak, which it places on the morning of Monday, December 14, by Iowa clocks; other predictions put it a few hours earlier. Either way, Sunday night into Monday is the one to watch. The moon is a slim crescent, about a fifth lit, that sets around 9 p.m., and the radiant is highest at about 2 a.m., when rates are best. Expect fewer than the ideal figure from anywhere with a glow on the horizon, so drive away from town lights if you can.

• The Cold Moon, the closest full moon of 2026

  Full at 7:28 p.m. CST on Wednesday, December 23 · Rising in the east at dusk and up all night

  Full moon and the month’s perigee, the moon’s nearest point to Earth, come roughly seven hours apart this time, so it is the nearest and largest-looking full moon of 2026, the year’s last supermoon. It is full on the evening of the 23rd and still looks round on Christmas Eve. On snow-covered ground, expect moon shadows sharp enough to walk by.

• Venus before dawn, Saturn after dusk

  All month · Venus low in the southeast before sunrise; Saturn in the south and southwest after dark

  Venus is the brilliant morning star, far brighter than anything but the moon. Before sunrise on the 4th and 5th, a waning crescent hangs close by, with the star Spica between them. Jupiter and reddish Mars share the dawn sky; by Christmas week Jupiter clears the eastern horizon by mid-evening. In the evening, Saturn is the only bright planet, setting a few hours after dark by month’s end. On the 21st, after dark, the moon, nearly full, drifts right by the Pleiades.

• The Quadrantids, a New Year’s bonus

  Peak about 9:25 p.m. CST on Sunday, January 3, 2027 · Best in the hours before dawn

  The Quadrantids have a sharp, short peak, with rates around 80 an hour in a good year, and this time the moon is a thin waning sliver near new, out of the way. Because the peak falls in the evening for Iowa, try both the late evening of January 3 and the hours before dawn on January 4.

What are the best December outings for Iowa families?

Safety notes for December in Iowa