What to look for in nature in Louisiana this November

Louisiana is one of the country’s great wintering grounds for ducks and geese, and November is when the state takes its first real head count of the season. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries flies an aerial survey every month from September through January. A fixed-wing plane cruises at about 125 feet and roughly 100 mph along 27 north-to-south lines running from the Gulf up to U.S. Highway 90, and the crew tallies every duck by species and habitat within a strip a quarter mile wide. Those counts are then expanded statistically into an estimate for the whole coastal zone. Separate counts cover Catahoula Lake and the Little River basin in central Louisiana and parts of the northeast and northwest.

The November number swings hard with the weather that shaped the birds’ summer and fall. In November 2023, after a punishing drought had dried up Lacassine Pool, Cameron Prairie and most of the flooded rice and crawfish ground, the survey found 584,000 ducks, then the lowest November estimate on record, and November 2024 went lower still, to about 510,000. Two years later the picture had flipped: LDWF’s November 2025 report, as published by Louisiana Sportsman, put the total at 1,238,000, with 704,000 in the southwest, 414,000 in the southeast and 120,000 in the Little River basin, where pintails made up about half the birds. The agency put the most recent five-year November average at 885,000 and the ten-year average at 1.2 million. Gadwall, green-winged and blue-winged teal and pintails make up the largest share of the state’s wintering ducks, LDWF says, and ring-necked ducks can arrive in surprising numbers.

The November survey is usually flown early in the month; in 2023 the crews were in the air November 6–8 and the report came out the next day. Wherever water stands in the marsh or in a pumped-up rice field, the ducks gather. Good public places to watch them include the Lacassine Pool at Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge and Pintail Wildlife Drive at Cameron Prairie, both in the southwest, and the edges of Catahoula Lake for pintails in central Louisiana. Duck season opens in the West Zone on Saturday, November 14, and in the East Zone a week later, so the flocks move around more once shooting starts; see the safety notes below.

It depends on where you stand, and the answer changes by months from one parish to the next. Louisiana’s wildlife department has estimated breeding dates from the length of fetuses in does collected across the state, and its map of the average two-week peak runs from late September to the end of February. Part of the spread comes from history: LDWF says several parishes hold two or more breeding periods because deer with different breeding times were stocked alongside native deer.

Read roughly off the state’s map, the pattern looks like this:

• Already over: the marsh-edge prairies of Cameron, Vermilion and southern Iberia, where peaks fall from late September into October.
• November: the western pine country, from De Soto and Sabine down through Natchitoches, Vernon, Beauregard, Allen and western Rapides, where the shading falls between late October and November 20. Much of the far northwest, including Caddo, Bossier and Webster, along with Winn and Grant in the middle of the state, peaks from November 21 to December 4.
• December and January: the Mississippi Delta parishes of the northeast and the coastal parishes from Terrebonne east to St. Bernard and Plaquemines.
• January into February: the Florida Parishes, the Atchafalaya Basin and the country around Baton Rouge.

LDWF adds two cautions. The whole breeding season is longer than the mapped peak, and the time when bucks travel most is usually one to two weeks before peak breeding, not during it. For a naturalist, that means fresh rubs on saplings, scrapes pawed in the leaf litter along woods edges, and deer crossing roads at odd hours of the day. Drive slowly at dawn and dusk in the western half of the state this month.

Into a hollow tree, often enough. The state’s black bear management plan describes autumn, September through November, as a feeding frenzy biologists call hyperphagia, when a bear may take in about four times its usual calories to lay down fat for winter. In Louisiana that late-fall diet is mostly acorns and hickory nuts, with dwarf palmetto fruit and corn close behind. Wide-ranging fall foraging is also when bears get into the most trouble around people, so this is the month to keep feed, garbage and pet food locked away in bear country, in places such as the Tensas and Atchafalaya basins.

Louisiana bears enter their dens from November into early January. The plan notes that pregnant females go first, then mothers with yearlings, then young bears, and finally the big males, some of which stay active all winter in this mild climate. The preferred dens are large hollow bald cypress and tupelo trees along swamps and bayous; others den on the ground in thick cover. The cubs, usually two, are born in the den in winter, and LDWF biologists visit dens each winter to see how many cubs survive. Black bears are not true hibernators, the plan explains: their body temperature and heart rate drop and their metabolism slows by about half, and they may go without eating or drinking for the whole winter. If you find a big hollow cypress with a scratched trunk this month, admire it from a distance and leave it be.

Almost certainly. Ruby-throated hummingbirds, the one species that normally summers east of the Mississippi, have mostly left for Mexico and Central America by now. Baton Rouge Audubon Society advises that a hummingbird in a Louisiana yard between November and February is very likely a western bird that has chosen to winter along the Gulf Coast. Rufous is the most frequent, though it cannot be told safely from the very similar Allen’s hummingbird without a bander’s close look, so birders call these rusty birds Rufous/Allen’s. Black-chinned is next, followed by the buff-bellied hummingbird, nearly twice the size of a ruby-throat and wearing a vivid green throat. Calliope, the smallest North American hummingbird, has been turning up more often, and broad-tailed, broad-billed and Anna’s have all been found in the state.

Most winter hummingbirds pick a territory and hold it until February or March. To give one a reason to stay, the chapter suggests evergreen cover such as camellias, sweet olive and hollies, a few cold-season bloomers such as shrimp plant, cuphea and firespike, and a feeder of one part sugar to four parts water with no dye, refreshed about once a week in cool weather. Then watch, photograph the tail and flanks, note the date, and send a report to the chapter. Louisiana’s volunteer banders track these birds closely, and some will ask to come band a bird so its travels can be followed.

The northern half of the state usually does; the coast usually does not. The NOAA 1991–2020 normals behind the site’s frost pages show the pattern. The north Louisiana hills go first: half of all years have brought a 32 °F night by November 6 at Homer, November 15 at Monroe and November 18 at Shreveport, and central Louisiana follows, with Alexandria’s main airport at November 17. Baton Rouge’s median lands on November 26, right around Thanksgiving.

Still waiting at the end of the month: Acadia and the southwest prairie, with medians of December 4 at Lafayette and December 7 at Lake Charles, and the whole southeast coast, where Houma’s median is December 17 and New Orleans International Airport’s is December 31. Even there an early year can bring frost in late November, so keep an old sheet handy for tender plants and the satsumas. The Louisiana freeze-date page has the same three dates for every station in the state, from Monroe 26 N to Boothville.

Louisiana’s clocks go back one hour early on the first Sunday, November 1, and from that evening on darkness arrives an hour sooner. In New Orleans the sun sets at 6:14 p.m. on Saturday, October 31, and at 5:13 p.m. the next day; by November 30 it sets at 5:00. Shreveport goes from 6:25 p.m. to 5:24 p.m. overnight and is down to 5:09 by the end of the month. Over November as a whole, daylight shrinks by 36 minutes at Houma and 41 at Shreveport and Monroe, or about a minute and a quarter each day.

For any spot in the state, the daylight calculator gives sunrise, sunset and the length of twilight, which is worth knowing when a duck blind or a deer stand has to be reached in the dark.

November is the month the cold fronts start to stick. In NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals the average high drops by about 9 to 12 °F from October: from 79 °F to 68 °F at Shreveport, and from about 81 °F to 71 °F at New Orleans International Airport. Average lows fall to about 44 °F at Monroe and 45 °F at Shreveport, but stay near 51 °F at Lake Charles and 54 °F at New Orleans. Rain averages a little under 4 to about 4.6 inches across the state’s main weather stations, and December is wetter at all seven of the main stations.

The Atlantic hurricane season officially ends on Monday, November 30. Late storms are uncommon but not unheard of, so check the National Hurricane Center before a trip to the coast during the first half of the month.

The larger story is the winter ahead. Federal forecasters are unusually sure of the setup. The Climate Prediction Center’s ENSO update of September 10 put the odds above nine in ten that this cool season brings an El Niño of the very strong kind. Of all the ways El Niño reaches the United States, a wet Gulf Coast is the most dependable: NOAA’s Climate.gov notes that the coast from Texas to Florida has come out wetter than average in better than four of every five El Niño winters across roughly a hundred years of records. NWS forecasters in Jackson, Mississippi, whose territory takes in northeast Louisiana, describe the pattern: the jet stream sags south, a deep trough sets up over the middle of the country, more Gulf moisture streams inland, and the Southeast tends to run cooler than average. El Niño usually peaks between December and April, so November itself will feel little of it. NOAA’s formal winter forecast is due October 15; find it among the CPC’s three-month outlooks, and the weather page follows each front as it crosses the state.

Clouds decide everything in a Louisiana November; check the night’s cover on the sky forecast, and the moon calendar lists moonrise and moonset for your parish.

1. First Saturday bird walk, Saturday, November 7, 7 a.m. Baton Rouge Audubon Society leads a free walk with experienced birders on the first Saturday of every month at BREC’s Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center, 10503 North Oak Hills Parkway. No registration is needed; bring binoculars and the $3 park admission.
2. A swamp walk at Barataria Preserve. Rangers from Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve lead a free one-hour walk along the mile-long Wetland Trace boardwalk at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays through November (November 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25 and 26), meeting at the trailhead at 4917 City Park Street in Jean Lafitte. Young children can also join Read with a Ranger, a story hour with a craft, at 11 a.m. on Thursday, November 5, at the Lafitte library.
3. A boat ride on Bayou Lafourche. The park’s Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center in Thibodaux runs a two-hour guided boat tour at 10 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, $15 per person, with reservations required by phone or email; tickets are sold at the center.
4. Louisiana Ornithological Society field trips for members: piney woods birding in Kisatchie National Forest from Leesville on Monday, November 2; waterfowl and shorebirds at the Yates Tract of Red River National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, November 7; and a rice farm near Monroe on Sunday, November 8. Spaces are limited and sign-up is by email through the society.
5. At home: start Project FeederWatch on November 1, keep a hummingbird feeder up, and check the Kisatchie eagle camera on a rainy afternoon. On Thanksgiving week, find a cypress near you and note the day it looks most copper.

We checked each of these dates against the organizers’ own calendars on October 2; confirm before you go, because weather and staffing can cancel programs. Every other state and month is on the nature calendar.

• Duck and goose seasons open. Under LDWF’s 2026–27 schedule, ducks, coots and mergansers open November 14 in the West Zone and November 21 in the East Zone, both running to December 6 before a split. The West Zone covers the part of the state west of a line running south from the Arkansas border on LA 79, LA 9, LA 147 and US 167 to Lafayette, then along US 90 to the Mississippi line. Youth and veterans waterfowl days are November 7 in the West Zone and November 14 in the East. Canada, white-fronted and light geese open statewide on November 14. Expect shooting before sunrise near marshes, refuges and flooded fields.
• Deer firearms seasons widen. Across Deer Areas 1, 4, 5, 6 and 9 (the northeast Delta parishes, the Florida Parishes, the Atchafalaya Basin, the parishes around Pointe Coupee and West Feliciana, and the southeast coast), primitive firearms run November 14–20 and modern firearms open November 21, with some bucks-only days in Areas 5 and 9; the youth and veterans season on private land there runs October 31 to November 6. In Area 2, the northwest, firearms season has been open since October 31. In Areas 3, 7 and 8, still-hunting continues through November 29 and hunting with dogs begins November 30. In Area 10, the coastal prairie parishes from Cameron and Vermilion east to Lafayette, firearms still-hunting has been open since October 17. Quail opens November 21. Wildlife management areas and the national forest have their own dates.
• Hunter orange or blaze pink. Whenever a firearms deer season is open, a hunter after any game who carries a centerfire gun, a primitive firearm, slugs or buckshot must wear no less than 400 square inches, in total, of one of those two colors on the head, chest or back. Private-land hunters may substitute a cap or hat in one of those colors, and hunters in elevated stands on private land are exempt once in the stand but not while walking to and from it. On WMAs, every hunter except those after waterfowl or doves needs both the 400 square inches and a hat or cap in orange or pink. LDWF encourages everyone outdoors during hunting seasons to wear the colors too; a bright hat and vest are good sense for hikers and birders on public land this month.
• Cold water and early dark. Air on a November morning can be pleasant while marsh and lake water is cold enough to cause cold shock; wear a life jacket in boats and kayaks, and leave word with someone ashore about where you are paddling. With sunset near 5 p.m., carry a light on any afternoon walk.
• Bears and roads. Bears roam widely this month in search of food and cross highways in the river basins; secure garbage and feed, and slow down near bear-crossing signs. Rutting deer are also on the move.
• Hurricane season lasts through November 30. Alligators are slower in cool weather but still bask on sunny days; give them room.