What to look for in nature in Minnesota this November

When do tundra swans and geese peak in Minnesota in November?

• Tundra swans

  Building through early November; peak most years in mid-November · Brownsville Overlook on Highway 26; Weaver Bottoms off Highway 61

  These swans nest on the Arctic coast and stop on the river on their way to the mid-Atlantic coast. The refuge counts somewhere between 10,000 and 45,000 at the high point, and the Minnesota DNR calls the November gathering at Weaver Bottoms one of the region’s more spectacular birding sights. Brownsville Overlook, about three miles south of Brownsville, has a paved lot, mounted scopes and restrooms into mid-November; if it is full, the Reno Bottoms canoe access is 3.5 miles farther south. For Weaver Bottoms, the refuge suggests parking on the west side of Highway 61 at 116th Avenue.

• Diving ducks and the first wintering eagles

  All month · Open pools of the Mississippi from Red Wing to the Iowa line

  Canvasbacks, ring-necked ducks and goldeneyes sit in tight rafts on the open pools, and bald eagles work the edges for crippled ducks and fish. The National Eagle Center in Wabasha says hundreds more eagles move to the river as winter closes in, because it stays open where lakes freeze. Its Tundra Swan, Waterfowl and Bald Eagle field trip on Saturday, November 14 leaves the center at 12:30 p.m. on its small shuttle bus and returns by about 4 p.m.; it costs $60 ($50 for members), seats are few, and there is a waiting list.

• Canada geese at Lac qui Parle

  Late November into early December · Lac qui Parle Wildlife Management Area near Watson

  From the 1950s to the 1980s, migrant geese reached this western Minnesota refuge in mid-September and peaked in October, and at the height of the restoration program more than 150,000 were counted. The DNR’s 2024 to 2034 management plan says the timing has slid ever later: geese now arrive in late November or early December, and recent peaks have been about 11,000 to 20,000 birds. The same plan notes that greater white-fronted geese, with their yelping calls, have been increasing.

Which winter birds arrive in Minnesota in November?

• Pine siskins and red crossbills

  Already moving; more through November · Conifers statewide, especially spruce and pine in the north

  The forecast rates siskin prospects as excellent and notes that counters at Hawk Ridge in Duluth have already logged more than 1,000. Expect plenty of red crossbills as well, with a western type moving east into the western Great Lakes, and Hawk Ridge reported above-normal August totals. Crossbills feed by prying open cones with their crossed bill tips; listen for their sharp, repeated kip notes overhead.

• Evening grosbeaks and redpolls

  Late November onward · Northern feeders, birch stands, the Sax-Zim Bog

  Evening grosbeaks, fed by spruce budworm outbreaks in the east, are forecast to move in moderate numbers through the Great Lakes. Redpolls are hard to call, the forecast admits, but a small to modest movement into the western Great Lakes is possible. Pine grosbeaks and Bohemian waxwings are expected to stay mostly north this year, held there by a heavy mountain-ash berry crop.

• Snowy owls

  From early November, in years when they come · Open country: farm fields, airports, the northern half of the state

  The DNR describes snowy owls as irregular: in some winters hundreds reach Minnesota and in others almost none. They hunt from fence posts, hay bales and rooftops in flat, open land that looks like tundra, and Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport has a viewing area from which they are often seen in winter. Watch one from the car or from well back, and never flush it: a resting owl is saving energy it badly needs.

• Boreal birds at the Sax-Zim Bog

  Winter visitors start arriving mid- to late November · Sax-Zim Bog, about 45 miles northwest of Duluth off U.S. 53

  The Friends of Sax-Zim Bog say wintering species begin arriving in the middle to end of November. Great gray owls, boreal chickadees, Canada jays and black-backed woodpeckers are the draws, with rough-legged hawks and northern shrikes often lingering into April. The Welcome Center on Owl Avenue is closed in fall and reopens in early December, but the roads and the outhouse are open, and the Friends ask visitors not to aim binoculars at homes and to pull over when cars approach.

When is the deer rut in Minnesota, and when does firearms deer season open?

• Rubs and scrapes

  Late October into mid-November · Field edges and woodlots statewide

  A rub is a young tree a buck has scraped bare with his antlers, usually between knee and belt height; a scrape is a pawed patch of bare soil, often beneath an overhanging twig that he has chewed and marked. Both are easy to find once the leaves are down and make a good tracks-and-signs walk with children.

• Deer on the roads

  Worst at dusk, especially early in the month · Rural highways, river corridors, suburban edges

  The Department of Public Safety asks drivers to be most careful from 6 to 9 p.m., when deer move most, and not to swerve, which can put a car into a ditch or oncoming traffic. Researchers add that deer rarely travel alone, so a second one often follows the first.

• The firearms opener

  Saturday, November 7 · Statewide

  Firearms season A opens November 7 and runs through the 15th in the 200- and 300-series permit areas and through the 22nd in the 100 series. The late southeast season in the 300-series areas runs November 21 to 29, and the muzzleloader season opens November 28.

How do Minnesota animals get ready for winter in November?

• Black bears going to den

  Late fall into early winter · Mostly the northern forests

  Bears settle into dens under windfalls, in brush piles or in dug burrows, and stay as long as six or seven months. In that time, the DNR says, they neither eat nor drink, and they recycle their body wastes. Females give birth in January, and the cubs grow to five or six pounds before the family leaves the den, usually in early April.

• Beavers and their food piles

  Through freeze-up · Ponds, streams and lake bays statewide

  The Beaver Moon is well named. In the last open-water weeks beavers cut aspen, willow and other branches and sink them by the lodge, and once the ice forms they swim out under it to eat from this stored pile. A winter colony usually holds the two adults, the spring’s kits and often last year’s young. Look for a raft of fresh-cut branches beside a lodge, with green tips poking up through the first ice.

• Wood frogs that freeze

  From the first hard freezes · Leaf litter in the north, east-central and southeast

  The wood frog does not burrow deep. It tucks into the leaves on the forest floor and lets ice form inside its body; breathing and heartbeat stop. Sugar released from its liver protects the cells, and in spring it thaws and hops off. A pile of unraked leaves in a shady corner may shelter one.

• The last trout and salmon redds

  Until the streams ice over, late October or early November · North Shore rivers below the first barrier falls

  The DNR’s Lake Superior fisheries staff note that brook and brown trout, coho, chinook and pink salmon all spawn in the fall, from September until ice forms on the streams. Early in November, look into a clear pool below a bridge for a pale, scoured patch of gravel: that is a redd, a nest where eggs lie buried until spring. Stay out of the water so the gravel is not disturbed.

Which trees and plants still show color in a Minnesota November?

• Oaks, ironwood and blue beech that keep their leaves

  All winter · Hardwood forests and parks across the south and center

  White oaks, swamp white oaks, ironwood (hop-hornbeam) and blue beech often hold dry, tan leaves until spring, a habit called marcescence. Three Rivers Park District naturalists explain that the layer of cells that normally cuts a leaf loose does not finish forming until spring, and that it shows up mostly on the young, not-yet-flowering parts of a tree. One idea is that the rattling dead leaves protect next year’s buds from browsing deer and drying wind.

• Bare tamaracks

  Needles already shed in September and October · Bogs of the north and north-central

  The gold of October is gone and the tamaracks stand like dead trees among the dark black spruce, though they are only resting. Look closely at a twig: the needles grew in tufts of 12 to 30 on short, wart-like spurs, and those spurs will sprout a new set in spring. The small cones have already let go of nearly all their seed.

• Winterberry

  Red fruit all winter on female shrubs · Swamps and wet woods, mainly in the east

  This deciduous holly reaches the western edge of its range in Minnesota. Once its leaves drop, red berries a quarter to a third of an inch across crowd the bare stems. Only female shrubs bear fruit, so a patch may show red on some plants and none on the next.

• Buckthorn, the last green leaves

  Through much of November · Woods and fencerows, especially in the south and metro

  Common and glossy buckthorn keep green leaves for weeks after native shrubs are bare, so November is a good month to map an infestation.

Has Minnesota had its first freeze by November?

How much daylight does Minnesota lose in November?

What is November weather like in Minnesota, and what will El Niño bring this winter?

When do Minnesota lakes freeze over, and when is the ice safe?

• The DNR’s thickness guide

  Every time you go out · Any frozen lake or river

  For new, clear ice the DNR advises staying off anything under 4 inches, 4 inches for walking or ice fishing, 5 to 7 inches for a snowmobile or small ATV, and 9 to 10 for a small car. White ice, made from snow that melted and refroze, is only about half as strong, so double those numbers. The agency does not measure ice on any lake, and thickness can change from two feet to one inch within a few yards, especially near inlets, springs, docks and aerators.

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

• Taurid fireballs

  Southern Taurids peak about November 5; Northern Taurids about November 12 · High in the southeast to south late in the evening

  Taurid rates stay low, rarely above ten an hour, yet the shower is famous for the odd slow, brilliant fireball. Comet Encke shed the grit behind both branches. The 9th brings new moon, midway between the maxima, so the sky stays dark for each.

• Mars meets Jupiter before dawn

  Mornings of November 15 and 16 · High in the south and southeast in Leo

  Closest approach, a little over a degree, comes on the evening of the 15th by Minnesota clocks, when both are below the horizon, so check the predawn sky on Sunday and Monday (November 15 and 16), when bright Jupiter and fainter, orange Mars sit almost touching. Venus blazes low in the east-southeast before sunrise and climbs higher each week, growing brightest from about the 24th to the 27th, and Mercury joins it low near the horizon on the mornings of roughly November 18 to 25.

• The Leonids

  Best before dawn on Wednesday, November 18 · Face east or overhead after midnight

  The nominal peak falls at 5:45 p.m. Central on the 17th, before Leo has risen, so the best Minnesota viewing is the following morning. Around midnight the half-lit moon goes down, and from then until twilight the sky is moonless while the radiant climbs, reaching its highest just before dawn. Under dark rural skies, figure on roughly 15 meteors in an hour; forecasters see no outburst this year.

• The Beaver Moon

  Evenings of November 23 and 24 · Rising in the east-northeast around sunset

  Perigee follows the full phase by about a day, which is why this one qualifies as a mild supermoon. On Monday night it crosses the Pleiades, or skims their edge, and the little cluster all but disappears in the glare. December’s Cold Moon will be closer still.

• Saturn and Uranus in the evening

  All month after dark · Saturn in the south after dusk; Uranus near the Pleiades

  After dark, only one bright planet is up: Saturn, a steady yellowish point in the south. Faint Uranus, opposite the sun on November 25, stays up all night in Taurus; you need binoculars and a chart, and a dark night early or late in the month, since the full moon sits close by around the 25th.

What can Minnesota families do outside in November?

Safety notes for November in Minnesota