What to look for in nature in Washington this December

When is the best time to see bald eagles on the Skagit River?

• Rockport to Marblemount

  Building through December; volunteer counts have often peaked from mid-December into January · State Route 20 along the Skagit, Skagit County; Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport

  The Skagit River Bald Eagle Interpretive Center, at Howard Miller Steelhead Park, says you may see as many as 100 eagles from the highway at the height of the season, which it puts between mid-December and late January. Its volunteer counts give a feel for the curve: in the 2018–19 winter the weekly tally reached 99 on December 15 and 111 on December 29. Last season the center opened on Saturday, December 6, and ran weekends through mid-February; this winter’s schedule was not yet online at the start of October, so call or check the center’s site before you drive.

• The Nooksack at Deming

  December through March · Deming Homestead Eagle Park and the Welcome Bridge on Mosquito Lake Road, Whatcom County

  Whatcom County Parks runs a small riverside park on the North Fork Nooksack built around eagle watching, and names December through March as the season. Local watchers find the birds most active in the early morning and again just before dusk. A spotting scope helps: many birds sit far out on the bars and in the snags.

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

• Seattle

  Sunday, December 20 (confirm when registration opens) · A circle 15 miles across centered on downtown Seattle

  Birds Connect Seattle, the group long known as Seattle Audubon, has run the Seattle count for more than 95 years and lists this year’s count for Sunday, December 20. Last year’s count found 130 species, a little above the ten-year average of 127. Teams cover 14 sections of the city, usually from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and at-home counters within the circle watch their yards for an hour or so.

• Edmonds and Everett-Marysville

  Saturday, December 19, and Saturday, January 2, 2027 · South Snohomish County; Everett and Marysville

  Pilchuck Audubon Society runs both circles and takes field-team volunteers of every skill level, backyard feeder counters, and helpers for the data and logistics. Registration forms are on the chapter’s site.

• Spokane, Cheney and the northeast

  Cheney on Saturday, December 19; Spokane on Sunday, January 3, 2027 · Spokane County; Colville and Chewelah circles farther north

  Spokane Audubon Society says new birders are always welcome. Colville and Chewelah, up in Stevens County, count in the same window. Anyone whose home sits inside a circle may count yard birds instead.

Where can you see owls and winter hawks in Washington in December?

• Short-eared owls at dusk

  All winter; best in the last hour of daylight · Samish River Unit (the “East 90”), Samish Flats, Skagit County; coastal marshes; the Vancouver lowlands in Clark County

  Seattle Audubon’s BirdWeb calls the short-eared owl fairly common in winter west of the Cascades, mostly near the coast and around Vancouver. These owls hunt low over open grass with a loose, moth-like wingbeat, and they are out at dawn and dusk, so you can see them without a flashlight. WDFW says its Samish River Unit is frequented by them in winter, hunting the voles in the grass fields; in recent seasons part of the property has been set aside for wildlife viewing and part for waterfowl hunters, and a Discover Pass is required. The species is listed as at risk because so much of its open habitat has been lost.

• Rough-legged hawks from the Arctic

  Winter · Large open farmland and grassland on both sides of the Cascades

  If a big hawk hovers above a pasture like a kite on a string, think rough-legged hawk. BirdWeb notes that they come into eastern and western Washington every winter and hunt by hovering high, then dropping feet first. Look for a pale head, dark patches at the bend of each wing from below, and a white tail with a dark band at the tip.

• Snowy owls, some winters

  Early November to mid-March, in irregular numbers · Coastal flats and jetties in Whatcom, Skagit, Grays Harbor and Pacific counties; wheatland in northern Lincoln County; near Potholes Reservoir

  BirdWeb sums up the snowy owl’s visits plainly: none in some winters, more than 100 in others, a handful in most. Big invasions, called irruptions, come at least once a decade. If you find one resting on a driftwood log, admire it from a distance and never flush it for a photograph.

Where can you see elk and bighorn sheep in winter in Washington?

• Elk at Oak Creek

  Feeding starts once the elk come down in numbers, often in December, and runs through the winter · Oak Creek Wildlife Area headquarters, 16601 U.S. Highway 12, Naches, west of Yakima

  Supplemental feeding at Oak Creek began in the record winter of 1955 and became a yearly program by the mid-1960s. WDFW’s 2006 management plan said that in an average winter between 4,000 and 5,000 elk were fed daily at several sites in the foothills west of Yakima, and that more than 100,000 visitors passed through the wildlife area each year. During feeding, staff run daily guided truck tours of the feed site, about 30 minutes long; WDFW asks that reservations be made at least 24 hours ahead, with spare seats filled first come, first served, and donations support the feed. In 2023 the seasonal winter-range closures went into effect on December 15, a sign of when the season usually gets going. A Discover Pass is required.

• California bighorn on Cleman Mountain

  Winter · Bighorn viewing site, 14300 Old Naches Highway, Naches

  A few miles east of the elk, WDFW says California bighorn sheep can be seen through the winter on the slopes of Cleman Mountain along the Old Naches Highway. Each year from December 30 until May 1, the Cleman Mountain and Sanford Pasture roads are closed to motor vehicles so the animals can winter in peace.

How do Washington animals survive the winter, and what tracks do they leave?

• Marmots: the long sleep

  From September or October until spring · Subalpine meadows of the Olympics (Olympic marmot) and the Cascades (hoary marmot)

  The Olympic marmot lives in the Olympic Mountains and nowhere else, and in 2009 it became Washington’s official endemic mammal. The Park Service says it goes underground in September or early October for seven or eight months; its body temperature falls below 40 °F, and its heart can slow to about three beats a minute. Hoary marmots at Mount Rainier lean on summer fat to get through eight or nine months of hibernation.

• Pikas: the stored hay

  All winter, under the snow · Talus slopes and rockslides in the Cascades

  The pika, a small round relative of the rabbit, does not hibernate. All summer it carries grass, ferns and twigs into “haypiles” tucked under rocks, and in winter it tunnels under the snow from one pile to the next. Rangers say to listen for its short, high call.

• Snowshoe hares: the white coat

  White through the snow season · Mountain forests on both sides of the Cascades and in the northeast

  Mount Rainier’s naturalists note that the hare’s winter fur turns white at the tips while the base stays gray-brown, and the ear tips stay black. Its huge, furry hind feet let it run on top of fresh snow where other animals sink, and in winter it lives mostly on the buds, twigs and bark of willow and alder.

• Reading tracks

  Any morning after fresh snow, or on soft mud by a creek · Trails, woodland edges, field margins

  WDFW points out that rabbit and hare tracks show four toes, with the hind print about two and a half times as long as the front. A hopping hare leaves its two big hind feet ahead of the small front pair, so the pattern seems backward at first.

How do you tell Washington’s evergreen trees apart in winter?

• Western hemlock, the state tree

  Year round · Wet forests west of the Cascades; scattered in the northeast

  Look at the top first: a hemlock’s leader droops over like a fishing rod. The needles are short and flat, of mixed lengths, with two white bands underneath, and they lie in flat sprays. The small cones, about half an inch to three-quarters of an inch long, hang from the twig tips.

• Douglas-fir

  Year round · Statewide, from the Puget lowlands to the east-side forests

  Pick up a cone. Douglas-fir is the only one in the woods with three-pointed bracts poking out between the scales; children like to say a mouse has hidden in each one, leaving its feet and tail sticking out. Its bark grows thick and corky on old trees.

• Western redcedar and Sitka spruce

  Year round · Redcedar in moist lowland forests; Sitka spruce mainly along the coast

  Redcedar has no needles at all, but tiny overlapping scales in flat, drooping fans, and stringy bark. Sitka spruce is the coast’s tree of the fog belt: its needles are stiff, sharp and stand out at nearly right angles, so grabbing a branch hurts.

• Bare conifers and a red berry

  Winter · East-side forests; forest understory statewide

  Some “evergreens” are not. Western larch drops its soft needles every fall, so the bare, spiky trees among the pines east of the crest are alive and well. Pacific yew, a shade-loving understory tree, has flat needles with yellowish stalks; its seed sits in a scarlet, cup-shaped aril that looks like a berry with its bottom open.

What is December weather like in Washington, and what could a strong El Niño bring?

When is the earliest sunset and the shortest day in Washington?

What can you see in Washington’s night sky in December?

• The Geminids

  Active December 4–20; best on the night of Sunday, December 13, into Monday the 14th · Anywhere dark, after the crescent moon sets in mid-evening

  December’s big shower gets a nearly moonless peak this time. The International Meteor Organization lists its ideal rate as about 150 per hour, a best-case number that assumes pitch dark and the radiant straight up; Washington watchers will see fewer. Only a thin crescent is up, and it sets by mid-evening. Watching is good from late evening until dawn, and rates are usually highest around 2 a.m., when the radiant is high in the sky. Dress for an hour of sitting still in the cold.

• The Cold Moon, the year’s closest

  Full at 5:28 p.m. on Wednesday, December 23; nearly as full on Christmas Eve · Rising in the east-northeast around sunset

  Only about seven hours separate the moment of full moon from perigee, the moon’s nearest swing toward Earth, which is why EarthSky ranks it as 2026’s closest full supermoon; BBC Sky at Night also lists it as a supermoon. On solstice evening the fat, almost-full moon also passes close to the Pleiades, washing the cluster out in moonlight. Its pull, combined with the sun’s, is also behind the Christmas king tides.

• Planets: one at dusk, three at dawn

  All month · Saturn in the south and southwest after dark; Venus, Jupiter and Mars before sunrise

  Saturn has the evening to itself and by New Year’s Eve sets roughly four hours behind the sun. The morning sky is livelier: Venus blazes low in the southeast before sunrise, Mars brightens through the month, and Jupiter, in Leo, rises earlier each night until it clears the horizon by mid-evening in late December. Early risers on the 4th and 5th get a bonus: a slender old moon near Venus, with the star Spica sitting between the two.

What can Washington families do outside in December?

Safety notes for December in Washington