What to look for in nature in Minnesota this December

Where do trumpeter swans spend the winter in Minnesota?

• Trumpeter swans at Monticello

  December through February, building as the lakes freeze · Swan Park, Mississippi Drive, Monticello

  Warm discharge from Xcel Energy’s nuclear plant keeps a stretch of the Mississippi open all winter, and the Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas names it one of the state’s two great winter swan sites. Explore Minnesota describes more than 1,500 swans on the river from December to the end of February. Watch from the park above the river and listen for the deep, horn-like calls that gave the bird its name. Counts swing with the weather, so call the city or check local reports before a long drive.

• Telling a trumpeter from a tundra swan

  Any time both could be present · Open water statewide

  Both are pure white with black bills and feet, and both dwarf a snow goose. By December, though, most tundra swans have moved on toward the East Coast, so a swan on open water here this month is most likely a trumpeter. The DNR reminds anyone who hunts geese that every wild swan is protected by state and federal law.

Where can you see bald and golden eagles in Minnesota in December?

• Bald eagles at open water

  All month, more as the backwaters freeze · The Mississippi from Red Wing to La Crescent, especially near Wabasha

  The National Eagle Center in Wabasha says that in winter hundreds more bald eagles come to the river looking for open water. Look for them perched in shoreline cottonwoods, standing on the ice edge or riding low over a riffle. Young birds are mottled brown and white, so a single tree can hold eagles that look like two different species.

• Golden eagles in the blufflands

  November through March · Bluffs, coulees and goat prairies along the Mississippi in the southeast

  About 50 to 60 golden eagles winter in Minnesota’s bluff country, part of a regional population of more than 100 that spreads into western Wisconsin, northeast Iowa and northern Illinois, according to the DNR’s Minnesota Conservation Volunteer. Since 2005 the Golden Eagle Project, run by Audubon Minnesota, the National Eagle Center and the DNR’s nongame program, has surveyed and satellite-tracked them; the tagged birds flew more than 2,500 miles to breeding grounds in the far north of Canada. A perched golden is easy to dismiss as a lump in a tree. Compared with a young bald eagle, it has a smaller head and bill, a golden wash on the nape, and dark, unmottled underwings.

When is the Christmas Bird Count in Minnesota, and how can you take part?

• Rochester count

  Saturday, December 19; meet at 7:15 a.m. · Silver Lake, Rochester, with a midday tally at Quarry Hill Nature Center

  The Zumbro Valley Audubon Society sends teams out by car and on short walks across the circle, meets at Quarry Hill from noon to 1 p.m. to compare notes, and ends with a final tally and potluck supper. All skill levels are welcome. Residents inside the circle can count their feeders on the day using the chapter’s feeder form; to sign up, contact the compiler listed on the chapter’s website.

• Bloomington count walk

  Saturday, December 19, 9:30 to 11 a.m. · East Marsh Lake Park; meet at the Hillcrest School lot, 9301 Thomas Road

  A free, no-registration walk for the Minnesota River Valley Audubon Chapter’s count, with experienced birders to help. Bring warm layers, binoculars and water.

• Itasca State Park winter bird count

  Tuesday, December 15 · Itasca State Park, near Park Rapids

  The DNR’s state park calendar lists a winter bird count at Itasca, in the pine country around the Mississippi headwaters. Call the park for the meeting time and whether newcomers can join.

Which owls can you find or hear in Minnesota in December?

• Great horned owls hooting

  Evenings and before dawn, building through the month · Woodlots, river bottoms, parks and suburbs statewide

  Great horned owls are the first raptors in Minnesota to nest, laying eggs in January or February, often in an old hawk or crow nest. The University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center explains that the young need six or seven months of training before they can fend for themselves, so the adults start early. Males begin reclaiming territory with deep hoots soon after last year’s young leave in late fall, and as the cold deepens the pair settles into duets for a week or two: the male’s lower voice answered by the female’s higher one. Step outside on a calm night after dark and listen.

• Great gray owls

  Most reliable from early December to early March · Bogs and conifer edges of the north; the Sax-Zim Bog northwest of Duluth

  Minnesota sits at the southern edge of this owl’s range. The DNR calls it the largest owl in North America, up to 33 inches tall, and it hunts by day, listening for voles under the snow and plunging through the crust to grab them. The Friends of Sax-Zim Bog say their Welcome Center reopens in early December, open daily from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and that the bog’s winter specialties are found most reliably from then until the start of March. Watch from the road, keep your distance and do not bait owls.

Which evergreens are native to Minnesota, and how can you tell them apart?

• The three pines

  All winter · North and east-central forests; plantings statewide

  Count the needles in a bundle. White pine carries five soft needles, 3 to 5 inches long (white has five letters), and is the state’s tallest conifer. Red pine, the state tree, has two long, brittle needles of 4 to 6 inches and reddish, plated bark. Jack pine also has two needles, but short ones, under an inch and a half, and curved cones that can stay sealed on the branch for years until fire opens them.

• Balsam fir and the spruces

  All winter · Northern forests, with balsam fir scattered in the southeast

  Roll a needle between your fingers. Spruce needles are square in cross-section and roll easily; fir needles are flat and will not. The DNR describes balsam fir needles as soft, blunt, half an inch to an inch long, dark green above and silvery beneath, with smooth gray bark dotted with blisters of resin. It is the state’s only native fir, and the classic Minnesota Christmas tree and wreath bough. White spruce gives off a sharp, unpleasant smell when crushed; black spruce has smaller cones and grows in bogs.

• Two cedars that are not cedars

  All winter · Swamps and lakeshores (white cedar); dry bluffs and old fields (red cedar)

  Northern white cedar and eastern red cedar both carry tiny scale-like leaves and belong to the cypress family. White cedar fills northern swamps, where deer gather under it in deep snow; red cedar grows on the dry, sunny bluffs of the south.

• Eastern hemlock, the rarest

  All winter · Carlton County, southwest of Lake Superior

  According to the DNR, hemlock barely reaches Minnesota: it is native in Carlton County, with a few scattered trees in Aitkin and St. Louis counties. More than a quarter of the state’s hemlocks grow at Hemlock Ravine Scientific and Natural Area, beside Jay Cooke State Park. The ravine’s slopes erode easily, so it is managed as a sanctuary where visits are discouraged. Its short, flat, blunt needles lie in two rows, with cones barely half an inch long.

How do Minnesota animals survive the cold?

• Chickadees

  All winter · Woods, yards and feeders statewide

  A black-capped chickadee is about five inches long and lives here year-round. The DNR’s Minnesota Conservation Volunteer describes how it gets through: it hides seeds in bark crevices and small holes to retrieve later, shivers to make heat, roosts in tree cavities on the coldest nights, and lets its body temperature drop overnight to stretch its fat reserves to morning.

• Ruffed grouse in the snow

  Once powdery snow is deep enough · Aspen and conifer forests of the north and center

  A grouse will fly headfirst into soft snow and burrow in, spending cold nights and much of the day in the hole it makes. The DNR says that in winter the birds spend nearly all of their time in these snow burrows, and it notes the comb-like fringes on their toes in winter, which work like snowshoes. They eat aspen buds and twigs.

• Life under the snow

  Once at least 6 inches of snow cover the ground · Fields, prairies and woods statewide

  Between the ground and the bottom of the snowpack lies the subnivean zone. At Carleton College’s Cowling Arboretum in Northfield, naturalists explain that six inches of snow is enough to shelter mice, voles and shrews, a foot is better, and the space underneath stays near 32 °F all winter while the animals tunnel to grass, seeds and insects. Look for small air holes in the surface. Owls can hear the movement below from as far as 30 yards away.

• Bats in the mine

  Hibernation until late March or early April · Soudan Underground Mine and Mystery Cave

  Four of Minnesota’s bat species hibernate here; the others fly south. The little brown bat, northern long-eared bat and tri-colored bat winter only underground, in caves and mines, while the big brown bat can also hibernate in buildings. The two biggest known hibernation sites, the Soudan Underground Mine on Lake Vermilion and Mystery Cave in Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park, have lost more than 90 percent of their bats to white-nose syndrome since it arrived. If a bat turns up in your house this winter, the DNR advises leaving healthy hibernating bats undisturbed.

What tracks can you find in Minnesota snow in December?

• Snowshoe hare

  All winter · Northern forests and swamps

  Hares bound, so their tracks come in groups of four: two big, splayed hind feet landing ahead of two small front feet. In its white winter coat the hare itself is hard to spot, so the tracks are often the only sign of it.

• Foxes and coyotes

  All winter, often along field edges and trails · Statewide

  A walking fox places each hind foot almost exactly in the print of the front foot, leaving a neat single line, as if it walked a tightrope. Coyote prints are larger and follow the same purposeful line; dogs wander. Watch for a spot where the line ends in a crater: a fox or coyote pouncing on a vole it heard under the snow.

• Deer, squirrels and grouse

  Every snowfall · Parks, woodlots and backyards

  Deer leave split hearts and trails worn into paths; gray squirrels leave paired front feet behind larger hind feet, going from tree to tree; a grouse leaves a chain of three-toed prints that may end in a snow roost or in wing marks where it flew.

How much snow does Minnesota get in December, and what might El Niño change?

When is the earliest sunset in Minnesota?

What can you see in the Minnesota night sky in December?

• Venus before sunrise

  Every morning; near the crescent moon December 4 and 5 · Southeast before dawn

  Venus blazes before sunrise all month; apart from the moon, nothing in the predawn sky comes close to it. The old crescent moon drops in beside it at dawn Friday and Saturday, December 4 and 5, with blue-white Spica between the two on Friday.

• The Geminids

  Night of Sunday, December 13, into Monday morning · Anywhere dark; the radiant in Gemini climbs in the east

  On paper the Geminids deliver about 150 an hour (the International Meteor Organization’s zenithal rate, which presumes flawless darkness), and the moon is only a crescent that sets in mid-evening, which leaves the rest of the night dark. The radiant is highest around 2 a.m. Expect fewer from a backyard.

• The solstice

  Monday, December 21, 2:50 p.m. CST · Watch the low noon sun in the south

  At midday on the solstice the sun climbs only about 18 degrees above the southern horizon at International Falls and about 22 degrees at Minneapolis. A shadow you mark that day will be the longest of the year.

• The Cold Moon

  Wednesday, December 23, 7:28 p.m. CST; Christmas Eve looks nearly as full · Rising in the northeast at dusk

  Perigee, the moon’s nearest pass, follows within the same night, so December’s moon outdoes November’s as 2026’s biggest supermoon.

• Planets

  All month · Saturn southwest after dusk; Jupiter and Mars in the east late at night and before dawn

  Saturn is the lone bright planet in the early evening, sinking earlier each week. Jupiter rises by mid-evening at the end of the month and is high before dawn; Mars, near it in Leo, is steadily brightening. Ursid meteors peak on the night of December 22 but with a nearly full moon, and the Quadrantids follow on the night of January 3 into the 4th under darker skies.

What can Minnesota families do outside in December?

Safety notes for December in Minnesota