The first winter cold fronts herald the last wave of fall migration, with waterfowl migration peaking this month, starting with ducks and ending with large flights of tundra swans around Thanksgiving. It's not uncommon to see 20 or more species of ducks and other waterfowl in a single pond or lake during a few weeks in November. Common loons, saw-whet, long-eared, and short-eared owls, sandhill cranes, and bald eagles also peak in November as these birds move to warmer winter hunting grounds.
Winter finches like pine siskins, purple finches, and redpolls start showing up at feeders, especially in areas near conifer and birch trees.
Chickadees, nuthatches, jays, woodpeckers, (and squirrels!) continue caching food for winter. Acorns, tree nuts, and peanuts are favored foods for caching.
Beavers are active in the evenings as they, too, prepare stores of food for the coming winter. Black bears and raccoons prepare to hibernate for the winter. White-tailed deer are in prime mating season.
American Tree Sparrows arrive in November, taking their place alongside dark-eyed juncos foraging on the ground for millet and wild seeds.
Project FeederWatch begins November 1 and continues through April, enabling backyard bird watchers to record the birds visiting our feeders and contribute to Cornell Lab of Ornithology's growing body of citizen-science data. To join or learn more about Project FeederWatch visit https://feederwatch.org/
Tundra swans begin gathering in the backwaters of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers in southern MN and WI. Their numbers will peak around Thanksgiving, when there can be 10-20,000 swans in the Mississippi around Brownsville, MN and La Crosse, WI. There are viewing areas in both locations from which you can enjoy the sights (and sounds!) of the tundra swans and other water birds. The swans will stay in these areas until the backwaters freeze, before departing for their winter home in the Chesapeake Bay area.
