What to look for in nature in New Jersey this January

When do bald eagles lay eggs in New Jersey, and where do they gather in winter?

• Eggs in the nest

  The earliest clutches in early to mid-January; most pairs by late February · Nests statewide, thickest along the Delaware River and Bay; the Duke Farms nest on the Raritan in Hillsborough

  Once eggs are laid, one adult lies low in the bowl with only its white head above the rim, and the pair trade places through the day. The New Jersey Conservation Foundation notes that both parents incubate, for about 35 days, and that a clutch is one to three eggs. At Duke Farms, the female on the camera has now laid three eggs three years in a row; in 2026 they appeared on January 13, 15 and 18. In 2025 all three hatched between February 25 and 28.

• Wintering eagles at open water

  Arriving in December; concentrations peak in January and February, thinning by mid-March · The Delaware River from the Water Gap upstream; reservoirs and tidal rivers wherever ice leaves open water

  Eagles from Canada and New England that cannot fish through ice drift south to rivers that keep flowing. The National Park Service says the Upper Delaware, the stretch of river above New Jersey along the New York and Pennsylvania border, draws about 150 to 200 wintering eagles each year, which are most active at first light and again toward dusk. Downstream, the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area describes the river valley as important winter habitat for a large population of bald eagles, so the New Jersey river accesses in Sussex and Warren Counties are worth a slow, cold morning drive. In the south, the tidal Maurice River and the Cumberland County marshes hold both nesting pairs and visitors.

When do great horned owls nest in New Jersey?

• Great horned owls on eggs

  Mating through January into early February; eggs from late January; hatching in March · Woodlots, river corridors, parks and quiet suburbs statewide

  This owl builds nothing. It moves into a ready-made platform, most often an old red-tailed hawk nest, or uses a broken-topped tree, a cavity or a ledge. According to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, the female lays one to four eggs and incubates them alone for about five weeks, while the male hunts for both of them. The young depend on their parents well into the fall. If you know a hawk nest from last summer, look at it again in late January: two ear tufts poking above the rim are the giveaway.

• How to hear them

  The half hour after sunset, on calm, dry evenings · Any wood edge with big trees

  Stand still and listen for a soft, stuttering series of five or so low hoots. When both birds are calling, the male’s voice is noticeably deeper than the female’s, even though she is the larger bird. Screech owls whinny and trill from yards, and barred owls in wet woods call their rhythmic “who cooks for you.”

Where do brant and tundra swans spend the winter in New Jersey?

• Atlantic brant

  All winter; feeding on lawns and fields more as the winter goes on · Barnegat Bay, Great Bay and the Forsythe impoundments; back bays south to Cape May; waterfront parks and golf courses

  The Atlantic Flyway’s brant management plan put the core of the species’ winter range between Cape May and northwestern Long Island, with roughly 85 percent of the population in that short stretch of coast. The midwinter count is the only measure of how many brant there are, so the January flights over New Jersey’s bays matter far beyond the state. Brant once lived mainly on eelgrass, but a disease devastated Atlantic eelgrass in the 1930s, and they now depend chiefly on sea lettuce and, more and more, on the grass of lawns and playing fields. That reliance has a cost: in the winter of 1977–78, a failed sea lettuce crop and severe cold together starved about two-thirds of the brant wintering on the coast. In a hard January, look for flocks grazing ballfields close to the bay.

• Tundra swans

  Usually from December into March, as long as some water stays open · Whitesbog, in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest near Browns Mills; also coastal impoundments

  NJ Audubon’s Pine Barrens guide calls tundra swans reliable winter visitors at Whitesbog, the historic cranberry and blueberry village whose old bogs are now part of the state forest. These are Arctic nesters, pure white with black bills (many show a yellow fleck near the eye), and they give a soft, high whooping that carries across the bogs. They usually rest far out, so a scope helps. A five-mile driving tour with numbered posts winds through the bogs, and the area is open from dawn to dusk.

When are seals easiest to see in New Jersey, and what if you find one on the beach?

• Harbor seals at Sandy Hook

  Peak from December through March; best at low tide · Skeleton Hill Island in Sandy Hook Bay; the rocks off Officers’ Row at Fort Hancock

  At low tide the seals pull out onto sand and rock to rest, digest and warm up, lying in curved, banana-shaped poses with head and tail raised. The New Jersey Conservation Foundation recommends visiting at low tide and using binoculars or a long lens, never walking closer. Federal rules under the Marine Mammal Protection Act call for staying at least 150 feet away, and farther if a seal lifts its head to watch you.

• Gray seals and Arctic visitors

  Gray seals mostly in January and February; harp, hooded and ringed seals now and then · Beaches and jetties along the whole coast

  Gray seals give birth from mid-December to early February, NOAA Fisheries says, on islands off Maine and Massachusetts. A pup is fed for only a couple of weeks, and then it is on its own, so the young gray seals that turn up on New Jersey beaches in January and February are often first-winter animals finding their way. Some young seals travel hundreds of miles to get here, and rarer harp, hooded and ringed seals from the Arctic sometimes appear as well. A gray seal has a long, horse-like face; a harbor seal’s is short, like a puppy’s.

• A seal on the sand

  Any day of the winter · Ocean and bay beaches

  A seal lying on the beach is usually resting, not stranded. Keep people and dogs well back, don’t pour water on it or try to push it to the sea, and call the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine on its 24-hour hotline, 609-266-0538, if the animal looks hurt, thin or tangled, or if people are crowding it.

What are bears and coyotes doing in New Jersey in January?

• Bear cubs born in the den

  January · Dens in rock crevices, hollow trees, brush piles and ground nests, mostly in the northwestern counties

  According to NJ Fish & Wildlife, the state’s black bear cubs arrive in January, blind and thinly furred and about eight ounces each, and nurse on their mother’s milk while she stays in the den. A sow can have one to six cubs, but three is the state’s average. Bears are not true hibernators and can stir on mild days. The family usually stays put until April. Give any den you come across a wide berth, and keep dogs leashed in bear country.

• Coyotes courting

  Breeding mostly in January and February; pups born in April or early May · Statewide, from the Pine Barrens and farm country to suburban edges

  NJ Fish & Wildlife’s fact sheet on the eastern coyote explains that the family groups of summer and fall break up by early winter and the adults pair off to breed once a year, in January and February. During this midwinter season coyotes are seen and especially heard more than at almost any other time. New Jersey males usually weigh 35 to 40 pounds, more than western coyotes, and their coats run from gray-tan to nearly black, but the bushy tail, black-tipped and with a dark spot about a third of the way down, is a reliable mark. Gestation is about nine weeks, and litters average about six pups.

How can you tell New Jersey trees apart in winter?

• American sycamore

  All winter; seed balls break apart in late winter · Stream banks and river floodplains statewide, including the Raritan at Duke Farms

  The upper trunk and limbs peel in patches of white, green, tan and brown, the so-called camouflage bark that stands out across a river valley on a gray day. Round seed balls dangle on long stalks all winter, like ornaments, and break apart in late winter to release tiny winged seeds. The twigs zigzag, and each bud sits under a single cap-like scale.

• Tuliptree

  All winter · Rich woods across the north and center of the state

  Often the tallest, straightest trunk in the forest. Look for the twig’s flattened end bud, shaped like a duck’s bill, and for the bases of last year’s seed clusters still standing upright on the branch tips, like small wooden flowers. A broken twig smells sweet and spicy.

• Sweetgum

  Seed balls on the tree and the ground all winter · Southern and central New Jersey; widely planted on streets

  The spiny brown gumballs underfoot give it away. Young branches often carry corky wings or ridges, and the large end bud is shiny and sticky.

How much daylight does New Jersey gain in January?

How cold and snowy is a New Jersey January, and what might El Niño bring?

What can you see in the New Jersey night sky in January 2027?

• The Quadrantids

  Sunday night, January 3, into the dawn of Monday, January 4 · All over the sky; the radiant sits low in the northeast in the evening and climbs after midnight

  At their best the Quadrantids rival any shower of the year, though the burst is brief. The forecast from the American Meteor Society has it near 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, January 3; one other forecast says about 12:47 a.m. Both fall in New Jersey’s dark hours. The Moon is a thin waning crescent that rises only a few hours before sunrise, so the sky stays dark. Because the radiant climbs higher as the night goes on, the predawn hours of Monday may be best. Under dark skies at Wharton State Forest or High Point, dozens an hour are possible near the peak; in town, far fewer.

• Perihelion and Venus at its widest

  Perihelion 9:33 p.m. Saturday, January 2; Venus greatest elongation Sunday, January 3 · Venus in the southeast before sunrise

  Earth reaches perihelion, its nearest point to the Sun for 2027, at 9:33 that Saturday evening, roughly 91.4 million miles out; New Jersey’s cold comes from the tilt that keeps the winter Sun low, not from distance. Next morning Venus reaches greatest western elongation, a full 47 degrees clear of the Sun, and it dominates the predawn southeast; through a backyard telescope it shows a half disk.

• The Wolf Moon, a supermoon

  Full at 7:17 a.m. Friday, January 22; best on the evening of Thursday, January 21 · Rising in the east-northeast around sunset

  Perigee comes roughly fourteen and a half hours before full, so this is 2027’s nearest full moon, about 222,000 miles off. Because the moment of full falls just after sunrise on the 22nd, the night of the 21st is the one to watch: it rises at dusk and sets around dawn. A winter full moon also rides high, and over snow it lights the woods well enough to see tracks. On the evening of Saturday, January 23, one almanac places the Moon about one and a half degrees from Jupiter.

• Saturn, Mercury and dark evenings

  Saturn all month; Mercury in the last days of January; moonless evenings about January 3 to 12 · Saturn in the southwest after dark; Mercury very low in the west-southwest after sunset

  Saturn, in the southwest after dusk, sets a little earlier every night. In the final days of January, Mercury starts its finest evening showing of the season, very low in twilight half an hour or so after sunset; a beach facing the bay or an open field helps. Evenings free of moonlight last from roughly January 3 to 12.

What are good January nature outings for New Jersey families?

Safety notes for January in New Jersey