What to look for in nature in North Carolina this December

How do you join a Christmas Bird Count in North Carolina?

Where can you see ducks, geese and swans in North Carolina in December?

• Pintails, teal and shovelers on Mattamuskeet

  All month; best on calm, clear mornings · Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, Hyde County; the NC 94 causeway and the refuge roads east of it

  Lake Mattamuskeet is the largest natural lake in North Carolina, and its impoundments fill with northern pintails, green-winged teal and northern shovelers in winter. Birders look through them each year for a Eurasian wigeon, a rare visitor, and for the white form of the great blue heron. Some parts of the refuge close to people in winter, so read the map and the signs before you walk out.

• Wings Over Water’s December encore

  Friday, December 4, to Sunday, December 6 · Pea Island, Alligator River, Pocosin Lakes and Mattamuskeet refuges; Oregon Inlet

  The refuge festival’s winter weekend runs guided trips at the season’s peak: Mattamuskeet in the morning and afternoon of the 4th, Pea Island’s ponds and beach, the jetty at Oregon Inlet for purple sandpipers and “Ipswich” savannah sparrows, and a daylong Pocosin Lakes tour on the 5th that looks for Ross’s and greater white-fronted geese among the snow geese. Most trips cost $25 (the Pocosin day is $30); register through the festival site, and note that each listing warns the date is in December.

• Hunting days on the lakes

  From December 17 on the coast and December 18 inland, to January 30 · Sounds, lakes and impoundments open to hunting

  The last duck season segment opens December 17 in the coastal zone and December 18 inland and runs to January 30; Saturday, December 5, is a statewide youth and veterans waterfowl day. Migratory birds may not be hunted on Sundays, which makes a Sunday the quietest day to watch from a public dike. On weekdays, expect shots at first light near open water and stay on the refuges’ posted wildlife routes.

When do bald eagles and owls nest in North Carolina?

• Bald eagles at the big lakes

  Year-round; Coastal Plain numbers peak in winter · Lake Mattamuskeet’s NC 94 causeway; Jordan Lake and Falls Lake in the Piedmont; lakes along the Yadkin

  North Carolina’s eagles disappeared as nesters after DDT thinned their eggshells, and the Wildlife Resources Commission brought them back by raising young eagles near Lake Mattamuskeet from 1982; the first wild nest in the post-DDT era turned up in 1984, seven miles from the lake. The Carolina Bird Club now counts well over a hundred nests across most of the state. On the Coastal Plain eagles are most numerous in winter (102 were counted at the Roper catfish ponds in November 2007), while in the Piedmont the highest numbers come in late summer. Pairs build in tall living pines and cypresses near water, and a nest can grow to 8 feet across as new sticks are added each year. The species is listed as threatened in North Carolina, so watch from a distance and never approach a nest.

• Great horned owls hooting

  Calling peaks in November and December · Statewide, all 100 counties; field edges and pine woods

  The Wildlife Commission notes that courtship begins in October and calling peaks in November and December, mostly at dusk and after dark. The calling tapers once eggs are in the nest, so December is the peak. The bird club advises looking at twilight around fields and clearcuts, where an owl may sit on a dead snag or a utility pole; listen for the pair calling back and forth just before dawn, too.

• Barred owls in the bottomlands

  Courtship builds through late winter · Swamps, river bottoms and beaver ponds; scarce in the mountains

  The barred owl is the wetland partner of the great horned owl: it hunts swamps and bottomland forests while the horned owl takes the drier ridges. Its rhythmic “who cooks for you” carries far on a cold, still night, and the Commission says nesting begins in late winter after a very vocal courtship, so the hooting grows louder as December goes on.

• A snowy owl? Almost certainly not, but watch the news

  Only in irruption winters · Outer Banks beaches and dunes

  The bird club counts only about a dozen coastal records before the 2013–14 invasion, which added roughly ten more between December and February. If one turns up, keep well back.

What winter seabirds can you see from the North Carolina coast?

• Red-throated and common loons

  Early November into April · Inshore ocean along the whole coast; Pamlico Sound; the Swan Quarter–Ocracoke ferry

  The Carolina Bird Club calls the red-throated loon one of the commonest birds on the ocean here in winter, and says more than a thousand can be seen on a single Swan Quarter to Ocracoke ferry crossing. Oddly, the two loons split the beaches: red-throats dominate the east-facing Outer Banks north of Cape Hatteras, while common loons often outnumber them along the south-facing beaches such as Bogue Banks. In winter plumage both are gray above and white below; the red-throat is slimmer, paler and holds its thin bill tilted up.

• Razorbills from the point

  Mostly mid-December to late March · Cape Hatteras point and northward; Jennette’s Pier at Nags Head; Johnnie Mercer’s Pier at Wrightsville Beach

  Razorbills were rare along this coast before 1995. Now they can be common to abundant off the northern half of it, with a top count of 12,000 flying past Cape Hatteras Point on January 30, 2018. Most feed within about ten miles of the beach. From shore they are small black-and-white “specks” low over the waves or diving constantly, so a scope helps; December is the start of their season, and numbers usually build into January and February.

What stays green in North Carolina’s winter woods?

• Fraser fir, the high-peak native

  All winter · Above about 4,000 feet: Mount Mitchell, Clingmans Dome, Grandfather, Roan; Christmas tree farms in the High Country

  Fraser fir grows wild only in the southern Appalachians, between about 4,000 and 6,700 feet and often alongside red spruce. N.C. Cooperative Extension notes that the same tree, farmed in the mountains, is the Christmas tree industry’s favorite species. The wild stands have suffered from the balsam woolly adelgid, an introduced insect; the silver skeletons on the summit of Mount Mitchell are its work, with young firs growing back between them. On the high peaks, firs carry flat needles that are dark green above with two silvery stripes beneath, and their cones stand upright on the branches.

• Rhododendron leaves that curl in the cold

  On freezing days · Mountain stream banks and coves; the rosebay or great laurel thickets

  On a frigid morning by a mountain creek, great laurel looks wilted, its long leathery leaves drooping and rolled tight. The Forest Service’s plant database notes that the leaves roll up in cold and in drought, and that each can stay on the shrub for up to eight years. Write the temperature beside a sketch of the curl, then look again when the afternoon warms.

• American holly in fruit

  Berries through winter · Woods statewide, especially bottomlands and coastal maritime forests

  Only female hollies carry the red fruit, which is why one tree is loaded and its neighbor is bare. Extension notes that the fruit is a food source for wildlife and that holly branches have long gone into Christmas wreaths. Watch a fruiting holly for a morning in late winter and the robins, mockingbirds and cedar waxwings will tell you when the berries are finally ready.

• American mistletoe

  Easiest to see once the leaves are down · High in oaks and maples, most often in the east

  The green clumps in bare treetops are mistletoe, which takes water and nutrients from its host tree but makes its own food. Birds spread its sticky white berries; the plant is poisonous to people.

Why are frogs calling in North Carolina in December, and what are other animals doing?

• Upland chorus frogs

  Winter and early spring, on wet nights · Grassy ditches, flooded fields and temporary pools, mostly in the Piedmont

  The Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina project says upland chorus frogs call in winter and early spring and often breed in roadside ditches. Listen for a short rising rattle, repeated over and over; outside the breeding season the frogs are hard to find, so the sound is the surest sign.

• Spring peepers out of season

  Most often November through April · Wooded wetlands statewide

  Despite the name, peepers call here “most frequently from November to April,” in the words of the same project, on warm, rainy nights and overcast days. A single high peep from the woods on a mild December evening is normal, not a sign that the season has gone wrong.

• Bears, mostly asleep

  Denning from November into January · Mountains and Coastal Plain

  Most bears are denned or about to be, in hollow trees, under rock ledges or in a nest of leaves in a thicket. The Wildlife Commission notes that males on the Coastal Plain may stay active right through the winter, so fresh tracks along a refuge road in December are possible.

• Tracks in mud and snow

  After rain or a dusting · Creek banks, farm-pond edges, dirt roads

  Below the mountains snow rarely lasts, but creek mud holds prints well: a raccoon’s little hands, the split hearts of deer hooves, a fox’s neat single file. Sketch one beside a coin for scale.

When is North Carolina’s earliest sunset, and how short is the shortest day?

How cold and snowy is December in North Carolina, and what might El Niño bring?

What is in North Carolina’s night sky in December 2026?

• The Geminids

  Night of Sunday, December 13, into Monday the 14th · Anywhere dark; the radiant is high in the south by 2 a.m.

  The International Meteor Organization puts the 2026 Geminid maximum on December 14, at a theoretical 150 or so per hour, and the Moon is no problem: a slim crescent, it is gone by mid-evening. Meteors begin once Gemini clears the eastern trees and are thickest near 2 a.m., with Gemini nearly overhead. Real skies give fewer, perhaps one a minute from the country. Wrap up and lie back in a reclining chair.

• The Cold Moon, the closest full moon of 2026

  Full at 8:28 p.m. on Wednesday, December 23; nearly as full on Christmas Eve · Rising in the east-northeast around sunset

  This month the Moon is full only about seven hours from perigee, its closest point to Earth, so the Cold Moon is 2026’s biggest. Nobody can spot the size gain by eye, yet a moonrise over the sound or behind a ridge repays the effort. On the 21st, two evenings before, the Moon slides by the Pleiades.

• Venus in the morning, Saturn at dusk

  All month · Southeast before dawn; south and southwest after dark

  Brilliant Venus rules the southeast before sunrise and swings farthest from the Sun in our sky on January 3. Look for a slim waning crescent near Venus before sunrise that Friday and Saturday, December 4–5, with blue-white Spica between them. Jupiter and Mars are morning planets too; by late month Jupiter is up by mid-evening. In the evening, Saturn alone shines in the south, setting a little earlier each week.

• Next: the Quadrantids and Comet Encke

  Quadrantids peak late on January 3, 2027 · Northeast after midnight

  The Quadrantids peak near 10:30 p.m. EST on January 3, close to new moon. Comet Encke starts brightening in December and may become a binocular object in evening twilight by late January.

What can families do outside in North Carolina in December 2026?

Safety notes for December in North Carolina