What to look for in nature in Kansas this January

Where can you see bald eagles in Kansas in January?

• Reservoir dams and tailwaters

  Coldest spells of January into February · Below the dams at Tuttle Creek, Milford, Perry, Clinton and other large reservoirs; open stretches of the Kansas, Republican and Arkansas rivers

  Eagles perch in bare cottonwoods and sycamores along the shore, drop to the water for fish stunned in the outlet, and loaf on the ice edge. Mornings are usually best. After a run of single-digit nights, when smaller lakes have frozen, the birds that remain are packed onto the few open patches, white-headed adults and mottled brown young together.

• Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge

  All winter; open 24 hours · Phillips County, northwest Kansas

  The refuge’s own wildlife page sums up its winter briefly: as the lake freezes over, fewer birds may be found, except for bald eagles, numerous hawks and a few wintering western meadowlarks. At dusk eagles gather to roost in the dead and living trees around the reservoir edge, which makes the drive along the refuge roads in late afternoon worth the trip.

• A recovery story

  Documented since 1989; 137 nesting pairs by 2018 · River corridors and reservoirs, mostly in the eastern two-thirds of the state

  In 1989 Kansas had a single known nesting pair. A study of 30 breeding seasons in the Journal of Raptor Research counted 137 documented nesting pairs in 2018, with the earliest pairs choosing sites near big artificial reservoirs and later ones spreading along rivers. By 2023 nearly 300 nesting territories had been reported since 1989, and KDWP had fitted solar GPS backpacks to nearly 30 eagles, including nestlings from Barton and Stafford counties east to Geary and Pottawatomie, to learn where Kansas-raised eagles go and how they use the landscape.

• The Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey

  Usually the first half of January · Standard routes nationwide, including Corps of Engineers lakes

  Volunteers and agency staff have counted wintering eagles on fixed routes every January since 1979, now under the U.S. Geological Survey with the Army Corps of Engineers as a partner. The 2026 survey ran from January 7 to January 21, with target days of January 9 and 10. The 2027 dates were not posted at the time of writing; Corps lake offices can tell you whether a route near you needs help.

When do great horned owls nest in Kansas?

• Great horned owl on eggs

  Eggs as early as late January · Old hawk or crow nests, hollow trees, farm groves and big park trees statewide

  According to the Great Plains Nature Center in Wichita, Kansas great horned owls may begin laying in late January, usually two or three plain white eggs. Because a bare egg would freeze in a January night, the female starts incubating as soon as the first one is laid, and each takes about 28 days to hatch, so the owlets in one nest differ in age by days. The owl adds nothing to the nest it borrows; look for a big, untidy stick platform in a cottonwood with a pair of feathered “ears” poking above the rim.

• Courtship duets at dusk

  Most evenings in calm weather · Anywhere with large trees and open hunting ground nearby

  According to the same nature center, winter is the peak hooting season, and the birds will often reply to a person’s imitation. If you hear two birds answering each other from the same grove night after night, a nest is likely close by. By the center’s figures, eggs laid in late January hatch about four weeks later and the young leave the nest at about 35 days old, so a nest found now can be followed into spring.

Which winter birds from the north are in Kansas in January?

• Harris's sparrow

  Late fall to spring · Brushy hedgerows, thickets, open woods and backyard feeders

  Audubon’s field guide calls it a bird of the heartland that nests in north-central Canada and winters mainly on the southern Great Plains. Adults show a black crown, face and bib, a pinkish bill and white underparts; first-winter birds lack the black throat but keep the size and pink bill. Flocks feed on the ground near cover and, when startled, fly up to perch on the tops of the thicket, giving sharp call notes. Few songbirds have a winter range so closely tied to the plains around Kansas.

• Lapland longspurs and horned larks

  Peak numbers after snow · Bare stubble, plowed fields, short grass and gravel roads

  Lapland longspurs breed in the Arctic and winter on fields and prairies, where the Great Plains can hold thousands. They walk rather than hop, searching methodically for weed and grass seed and waste grain, often mixed with horned larks, which nest on the same bare ground very early in spring. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff on the northern plains report wintering longspurs on fallow fields and gravel roads, often with horned larks; drive slowly on a county road after a snowfall and watch for small brown birds lifting off the gravel.

• Rough-legged hawk

  Winter visitor; numbers vary year to year · Open grassland, marsh edges and cropland

  Feathers run all the way down to its toes, a sign of its Arctic summers. Audubon notes that numbers south of Canada swing widely from one winter to the next and that few go farther south than the central states. The best clue is behavior: a large hawk holding still in the wind above a field, hovering in one spot to watch for voles and mice below, is very likely a rough-leg.

• Winter finches, not a big year

  Possible late in the winter · Feeders with sunflower and nyjer seed

  Published in late September 2026, this winter’s Finch Research Network outlook expects big northern cone and seed crops to keep most finches and red-breasted nuthatches up north this winter, with perhaps a small, late flight of purple finches southward. A pine siskin or purple finch at a Kansas feeder would be a bonus.

Where do geese and ducks spend the winter in Kansas?

• City geese in Wichita and other towns

  All winter · Park ponds, golf courses and business-park lakes

  The Great Plains Nature Center reports that Wichita’s urban wintering flock of Canada geese grew from about 1,600 birds in 1983 to more than 21,000 by 2007. They like water with mowed grass beside it and a clear view between the two. Look closely at a loafing flock: the small, stubby-billed birds the size of a mallard are cackling geese, once counted as a Canada goose subspecies and now treated as a separate species.

• Reservoir waterfowl

  Until the lakes freeze over · Cheney, El Dorado, Milford, Perry, Clinton and other large lakes

  On big lakes, diving ducks, mergansers and gulls rest far out in the middle. Wichita Audubon plans a winter-waterfowl trip to Cheney Reservoir on Sunday, January 24, 2027, meeting at 7 a.m. at the Dillons at 21st and Amidon to carpool, or at about 8:15 a.m. at the west-side boat launch near the dam; a Kansas parks vehicle permit is required, and the society’s schedule lists the leader’s contact details.

What are Kansas mammals doing in the middle of winter?

• Red fox courtship

  Most matings in January and February · Every county, often near farmsteads and town edges

  The Kansas Mammal Atlas at Fort Hays State University says red foxes can breed from December to April but mostly mate in January and February, after which the female settles in a den dug into loose, well-drained soil, often on a brushy hillside. Late-winter home ranges are larger, presumably because food is scarcer, so foxes cover more ground now. Two sets of fox tracks traveling together in new snow are a good sign of a courting pair.

• Striped skunks in shared dens

  Dormant in severe cold; breeding begins in February · Under buildings, in old burrows, culverts and brush piles

  Skunks do not truly hibernate, the atlas notes, but they stay in their dens through hard cold and live on autumn fat. In winter several females, sometimes with a single male, often share one den. On the first mild night after a cold snap they come out to forage, and the smell along a country road is a reliable January sign.

How can you identify Kansas trees by their twigs in winter?

• Cottonwood, the state tree

  Big tan buds all winter · Every county, along streams, river bottoms and lake shores

  Twigs are olive-brown to yellowish and brittle, with large tan buds that come to a point, some longer than an inch. On a big tree the gray bark is cut by deep furrows between wide, flat ridges. Strong winds often snap its limbs, so a winter walk under cottonwoods turns up plenty of twigs to examine up close.

• Osage orange

  Spines and fallen fruit all winter · Old hedgerows, shelterbelts and fence lines throughout Kansas

  Zigzag twigs armed with straight spines up to an inch long, and orange-brown bark that peels in long strips, make this tree hard to miss. The lumpy green “hedge apples” that dropped in autumn lie under the trees all winter; seed-eaters chew them open, leaving pulpy husks on the snow. The guide notes it was often planted in windbreaks, and its bright orange wood is very hard.

• Black walnut

  Husks and nuts on the ground; buds all winter · Statewide, more common in the eastern two-thirds, on stream banks and bottomland

  Look for stout gray-brown twigs with big leaf scars shaped like a shield or a three-lobed face, with the bundle scars grouped in three. The end bud is irregular and flattened. Blackened husks under the tree confirm it.

• Bur oak

  Corky branches and acorn cups all winter · Eastern and central Kansas, in bottomland woods and on prairie hillsides

  Coarse, stiff twigs, often woolly, and smaller branches lined with corky ridges set it apart from other oaks. The acorn cups are deep, with a fringed rim, and often lie beneath the tree long after the nuts are eaten.

• Eastern red cedar

  Evergreen; berries through winter · Pastures, old fields, windbreaks and hillsides statewide

  Its tiny scale-like leaves turn reddish-brown in cold weather. The waxy, berry-like fruits feed birds, deer and rodents through the winter, and songbirds and mourning doves nest in its dense branches. It also spreads aggressively into poorly managed grassland.

How can families celebrate Kansas Day outdoors on January 29?

• Cottonwood, named state tree in 1937

  Any day · The nearest creek or river

  The historical society notes it grows in every county. Find the biggest one you can and measure its girth with a string at chest height.

• Western meadowlark, state bird since 1937

  Winter flocks on mild days · Pastures, roadsides and refuges such as Kirwin

  More than 121,000 Kansas schoolchildren voted to choose it. Some meadowlarks spend the winter here, feeding quietly in dead grass on pastures and roadsides.

• Bison, state animal since 1955

  Herds are visible year-round · Public and private herds across the state

  Once reduced to a few hundred animals, bison now number in the hundreds of thousands, and the species is also the national mammal. A herd in shaggy winter coats against snow is a fine Kansas Day sight if one is within reach.

How cold is a Kansas January, and what could a strong El Niño mean?

How much daylight does Kansas gain in January?

What can you see in the Kansas night sky in January?

• Quadrantid meteor shower

  Night of Sunday, January 3, into Monday, January 4 · Northeast sky, rising higher toward dawn

  Quadrantid rates spike for only a few hours. The American Meteor Society’s timing is close to 9:30 p.m. CST on Sunday the 3rd; EarthSky’s prediction is later, near 11:45 p.m. Either way it falls in the Kansas night, and the shower’s radiant climbs through the small hours, so the best rates usually come in the dark before dawn on the 4th. Moonlight is no problem this year: only a sliver, under a fifth lit, rises in the last hours of the night. From a dark country site, expect a few dozen meteors an hour at best.

• Earth closest to the Sun, and Venus at its best

  Perihelion Saturday, January 2, 8:33 p.m. CST; Venus farthest from the Sun on January 3 · Venus low in the southeast before sunrise

  Earth reaches perihelion, about 91.4 million miles from the Sun, in the middle of the Kansas winter, a good reminder that the seasons come from the tilt of the axis, not distance. Venus, the dazzling morning star, reaches its greatest elongation on the 3rd (47 degrees, per the almanacs) and shines over the southeastern horizon every clear dawn.

• The Wolf Moon, the closest full moon of 2027

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

  The Moon passes perigee, its nearest point to Earth, about 14 and a half hours before it is full, which makes it 2027’s largest-looking full moon, though only by a small margin. Both the 21st and the 22nd give a round Moon in the evening. A night later, Saturday the 23rd, a slightly lopsided Moon parks beside Jupiter in Leo, Regulus glinting nearby.

• Planets of the evening

  All month; Mercury from late January · Saturn in the southwest; Jupiter and Mars in the east; Mercury low in the west-southwest

  After dark, Saturn hangs in the southwest and loses height week by week. Jupiter and Mars, both in Leo, rise in the east during the evening and will both stand opposite the Sun next month, the giant planet first (February 10) and the red one nine days after it. By January 30 or so, Mercury can be glimpsed hugging the west-southwest horizon in bright twilight soon after sundown, on its way to a good February showing.

What nature events and programs are on in Kansas in January 2027?

Safety notes for January in Kansas