What to look for in nature in North Dakota this December

Where can you see moose in North Dakota in winter?

• Moose leaving the woods

  All winter; most active around dawn and dusk · Turtle Mountains, Pembina Gorge, wooded rivers of the northern third of the state, and farm country along the whole northern tier

  Moose once kept to the Turtle Mountains and the forested river valleys. The department says they have since spread onto the prairie wherever wooded bottoms and tree rows offer browse, and in winter some wander into farmyards and towns, with vehicle collisions most common then. A bull averages about 950 pounds, so slow down near any wooded creek crossing. They turn up outside their range, too. On December 22, 2016, a Fish and Wildlife Service photographer found a pair eating unharvested soybeans south of Flood Lake, near Kulm in the southeast, where the agency says moose are not common.

• Ghost moose and winter ticks

  Ticks attach in fall, feed all winter and drop off in spring, usually April · Wherever moose live

  Winter is also when a tiny parasite does its damage. Game and Fish explains that winter ticks climb onto moose in fall and feed through the winter, and that in mild years a single moose can carry 75,000 to 150,000 of them. Badly infested moose rub away much of their hair trying to get relief, leaving gray, ragged “ghost moose.” Snow is the moose’s ally here: an engorged tick that drops onto snow dies, so it is a run of mild winters with bare ground in spring that lets the ticks boom. If you see a moose with pale, patchy flanks in late winter, that is the likely reason.

How do grouse, partridge and pheasants survive a North Dakota winter?

• Sharp-tailed grouse under the snow

  Early December through late February · Native grassland and brushy coulees statewide; buffaloberry, rose and chokecherry thickets

  Game and Fish’s natural history calendar has sharp-tailed grouse turning to a winter diet made up mostly of berries and buds from early December, and burrowing into the snow to roost through late February. Snow insulates, and a bird tucked beneath it is out of the wind. On a calm morning after fresh snow, a group may explode out of a drift almost under your boots. If that happens, look back at the holes they left; each one is a roost, and the marks around it show where wings struck the snow.

• Gray partridge in family coveys

  All winter; coveys break up in late winter · Grain and sunflower stubble, road ditches and farmsteads, mostly in agricultural country

  The gray or Hungarian partridge, the “Hun” of North Dakota hunters, survives on extra fat, dense feathers and thick pads on its feet, according to the department, and it will tunnel through snow to reach food while staying out of the wind. Families stay together as coveys through fall and winter, sometimes mixing with other coveys, and split up only when nesting season approaches. In winter the birds lean on stubble fields, roadsides and farmyards, where waste grain, weed seeds and grit are exposed. A covey of small, round, gray-brown birds whirring off a gravel shoulder is a classic December sight.

• Pheasants in the cattails

  October through March · Cattail sloughs, tall grass, food plots, and wide shelterbelts in the worst storms

  Game and Fish’s habitat guide says pheasants need stiff-stemmed cover that stays upright under heavy snow, with food within about a mile. A South Dakota study it cites found hens moved into trees mainly late in a severe, once-in-ten-years winter; in ordinary winters they stayed in cattails, tall grass and food plots. Narrow tree belts of one to four rows can turn deadly, filling with drifts that smother the birds sheltering there.

Which hawks, falcons and owls hunt North Dakota in winter?

• Rough-legged hawks

  Mid-October until April · Open, treeless country: prairie, marshes, stubble fields, utility poles

  By December rough-legged hawks have settled in across North Dakota’s open land. It nests on the Arctic tundra of Alaska and Canada and spends the winter here, hunting mice and voles by hovering in place or watching from a perch. Field marks: a dark band across the belly, a black wrist patch under each wing, and a white tail with one broad dark band. The guide calls it a fairly tame hawk that often lets people approach closely, so a slow drive along a section road is the best way to find one.

• Gyrfalcons, the rare one

  About November through March · Open country statewide

  The guide calls the gyrfalcon the largest of our falcons. It nests on Arctic and alpine tundra, and most stay there all year; some winter in southern Canada, and the guide says few go any farther south than North Dakota, so the state sits right at the edge of where you can hope for one. Gyrs range from gray to nearly white or nearly black, with females almost twice the weight of males. Any big, heavy-bodied falcon flying low and fast over a December field deserves a second look and an eBird report.

• Northern goshawks and golden eagles

  Goshawks October through March; golden eagles statewide in winter · Goshawks in woodlands and river bottoms; golden eagles in the badlands and over open prairie

  Goshawks winter here without nesting, in larger numbers when food fails farther north, and individuals tend to return to the same winter haunts. Golden eagles, at home in the badlands and along the upper Missouri, wander the whole state in winter and will feed on deer and pronghorn carcasses. The guide says pairs start tending their nests in January.

• Great horned owls getting ready to nest

  Year-round; nests started as early as February · Tree rows, farmstead groves and river woods across the state

  The great horned owl lives in every part of North Dakota all year, and the raptor guide says it starts nesting here as early as February, usually in an old nest built by a hawk, eagle, crow, heron or squirrel. So by December the nesting season is close, and the leafless trees make the big stick nests easy to spot. Note promising nests in a tree row now, then check them from a distance in late winter for a pair of ear tufts above the rim.

When is the Christmas Bird Count in North Dakota, and how can you join?

• How to take part

  Sign up in early December; count days fall between December 14 and January 5 · Any count circle; Audubon’s circle finder lists them

  Audubon offers two ways in, both free and open to beginners. Field counters spend the daylight hours on a share of the circle, logging every bird seen or heard. Feeder counters who live inside a circle tally the birds at home. Audubon’s circle finder shows the circles near you and how to reach each organizer, who sets the date and meeting place.

• What the old counts show

  The 1969 and 1970 counts · As reported in the Bismarck Tribune

  Prairie Public’s Dakota Datebook dug up the state’s 1969 count results, announced by the Bismarck Tribune in January 1970: 37 species, including just one pheasant and one lone merganser. The next winter’s count found 25 pheasants and a flock of 23 Canada geese, and the coverage noted that the geese then usually left by early December. Today Canada geese winter on the Missouri by the tens of thousands, a change these old tallies make plain.

How do small North Dakota animals get through the winter?

• Red squirrels and their middens

  All winter, active by day · Spruce and pine plantings, the Turtle Mountains, and hardwoods and thickets even on the northern prairie

  The red squirrel is a hoarder. Game and Fish says it buries nuts and seeds one at a time or in small piles to eat on winter days, and that its feeding spots pile up with shredded cones, husks and hulls, sometimes more than a foot high. Look for those heaps, called middens, under spruces. In winter its coat turns orange-red and its ears grow small tufts.

• Flying squirrels at the feeder, after dark

  All winter, at night · Wooded areas with old trees, including towns

  North Dakota’s flying squirrels are its only nocturnal squirrels, so most people never see one. They don’t truly fly; a fold of skin between the legs lets them glide from tree to tree, usually 20 to 30 feet and sometimes as far as 150. The department notes they are frequent visitors at bird feeders. Watch a feeder near big trees on a December night with a dim light, and you may see one land with a soft thump.

• Deer in the shelterbelts

  From the first deep snow until spring · Shelterbelts, wooded draws and cattail sloughs next to food

  In bitter weather deer lean on thermal cover, the dense trees and cattails that cut the wind, and Game and Fish warns that pushing them out of it in harsh conditions makes them spend energy they need. So read their story from the road instead: packed trails in the snow between a tree row and a field show where they travel to feed, and beds melted into the snow show where they rest.

What is it like in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in December?

• Wild horses on the snowy buttes

  All year; easiest to see against snow · South Unit: the Talkington trailhead off I-94 exit 36, and the Painted Canyon, Buck Hill and Wind Canyon overlooks

  The South Unit is home to roughly 200 free-roaming horses. The Park Service’s collar studies show they travel in bands of about 5 to 15, and the park suggests looking near the Talkington trailhead in the southeast corner or from the Painted Canyon, Buck Hill and Wind Canyon overlooks. Against snow, a dark band of horses stands out from a long way off. Give them the same 25 yards you give bison.

• Rocky Mountain juniper on the north slopes

  Evergreen all year; berry-like cones on female trees · North-facing slopes and draws of the badlands

  The park’s plant notes describe trees on the cooler, north-facing sides of the buttes and bare, dry south faces, and in winter that contrast turns obvious: dark green juniper on one side, snow and clay on the other. Rocky Mountain juniper is the badlands’ evergreen. The USDA plant guide says male and female cones grow on separate trees, so only some junipers carry the dark blue, waxy “berries,” which are really small cones. The guide names the cedar waxwing as a principal eater of them, and says juncos, sparrows and other small birds roost in the thick foliage, shelter that matters most in winter. Find a berry tree near an overlook and wait a few minutes for the birds.

• Falcons and eagles over the river

  All year · Cliffs and buttes along the Little Missouri

  Prairie falcons live in the badlands year-round, and Game and Fish’s raptor guide says most of the state’s nesting pairs are along the Little Missouri valley. Golden eagles share the same skies. On a still winter day, watch the skyline of the buttes rather than the road.

When is the ice safe in North Dakota, and when can you fish for free?

• How thick is thick enough

  Check every trip, all winter · Every lake and pond

  Game and Fish’s guidelines are simple: stay off anything under 2 inches. It takes 4 inches for someone on foot, 6 with a sled or ATV, 8 to 12 under a car or light pickup, and 12 to 15 under a mid-size pickup. The department calls driving onto the ice early or late in the season “an accident waiting to happen,” and advises against driving on it at night or while it is snowing. Clear blue ice is the strongest; drill test holes as you go.

• If someone goes through

  Any time · Carry picks and a rope

  Game and Fish’s advice if you go in: turn toward the way you came, since that ice held you, use ice picks to haul yourself out, and roll away instead of standing up. To rescue someone, reach, throw a line or a float, or make a human chain, and never run to the edge of the hole.

• Free ice fishing weekend

  Saturday and Sunday, December 26–27 · Any public water with safe ice

  Game and Fish lists December 26 and 27 as its 2026 ice fishing free fishing days: North Dakota residents may fish without a fishing license, while every other regulation still applies. It is a good weekend to introduce children to ice fishing, provided the ice near you is thick enough by then. In a mild El Niño December it may not be. And pack everything out: the department reminds anglers that leaving fish or trash on the ice is a violation.

How cold and snowy is December in North Dakota, and what could El Niño change?

When is the earliest sunset in North Dakota?

What can you see in the North Dakota night sky in December?

• The Geminids

  Active December 4–20; best on the night of Sunday, December 13, into Monday · Anywhere dark; the radiant in Gemini climbs in the east through the evening

  Most years no shower beats the Geminids. The IMO’s 2026 calendar times the maximum near 8 a.m. CST Monday, December 14, with a theoretical 150 meteors per hour in an ideal sky; some forecasters say a few hours earlier, which still points to Sunday night. A crescent about a fifth lit drops below the horizon by mid-evening, and Gemini climbs highest around 2 a.m., the best hour. Real numbers from a dark farm road will be lower than the ideal rate, but still impressive.

• The Cold Moon, the nearest full moon of 2026

  Full at 7:28 p.m. CST on Wednesday, December 23 · Rising in the northeast around sunset and up all night

  Perigee, when the moon is nearest Earth, falls just seven hours or so after full, so this is 2026’s largest-looking full moon and its final supermoon. Go out on the 23rd, or on Christmas Eve, when it still looks round. Over snow, its light is bright enough to throw sharp shadows and to read the tracks of whatever crossed the yard that night. On the 21st, solstice night, a fat gibbous moon drifts by the Pleiades.

• Venus at dawn, Saturn at dusk

  All month · Venus low in the southeast before sunrise; Saturn in the south and southwest after dark

  Look southeast before sunrise for Venus, blazing as the morning star and a little higher each week. December 4 and 5 bring a waning crescent close by at dawn, Spica shining between the two. Jupiter and Mars also belong to the morning sky, and by Christmas week Jupiter is rising well before midnight. After dark, look for Saturn, the lone bright evening planet, which by New Year’s sets roughly four hours after sunset.

• Northern lights and a New Year’s shower

  Any clear night; Quadrantids peak about 9:25 p.m. CST on Sunday, January 3 · Low in the north for the aurora; the Quadrantids are best after midnight

  The sunspot cycle has peaked, but strong storms can still light up the north, and a state on the Canadian border with 15-hour nights is well placed to catch them; check NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center before bed. Just after New Year, the Quadrantids offer a short, sharp maximum, about 80 per hour when it performs, with the moon nearly new. Watch Sunday evening, January 3, and the dark hours before Monday’s sunrise.

What can North Dakota families do outdoors in December 2026?

Safety notes for December in North Dakota