Washington, D.C. Nature Guide: November 2026
November settles the District toward winter — the late oaks finish coloring, wintering waterfowl and sparrows fill the rivers and brush, Bald Eagles gather over the Potomac, and the markets turn to apples, roots, and storage squash.
What to look for this week
- Feeders are at their winter peak across the District — Carolina chickadees, titmice, white-throated sparrows, and cardinals work the seed, with dark-eyed juncos foraging beneath.
- The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks in a short, sharp burst around January 3; watch the northeast after midnight from an open spot like Hains Point.
- A planning week at the kitchen table — order seeds and sketch next year's beds, but cold frames in the warm city core still hold cuttable spinach and mâche.
Birds This Month
November settles the District's winter birdlife into place. Wintering waterfowl build on the Potomac and Anacostia — canvasbacks, ring-necked ducks, buffleheads, hooded and common mergansers, ruddy ducks, and tundra swans in some years — and rafts gather off Hains Point and the Tidal Basin. Bald Eagles increase as northern birds join the residents along the rivers.
Brushy edges and parks fill with white-throated sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, fox and song sparrows, and yellow-rumped warblers, while golden-crowned kinglets, brown creepers, and yellow-bellied sapsuckers work the woods. Feeders draw cardinals, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, and finches. Some winters bring irruptive purple finches, pine siskins, or red-breasted nuthatches.
This month's tip: scan the river rafts for waterfowl and the bare riverside trees for Bald Eagles — both are easiest now that the leaves are down and the wintering birds have settled in.
What's Blooming
Wild bloom is nearly finished in the District by November, but a few hardy flowers persist. The native witch hazel still uncurls its spidery yellow ribbons in the Rock Creek woods on mild days — the year's last truly wild flower — and scattered late asters, goldenrod, and dandelions hold on at sunny edges until a hard freeze. White snakeroot and a few stubborn meadow plants linger in protected spots.
The color now is in structure and fruit: the red berries of American holly, winterberry, hawthorn, and crabapple; the blue fruit of red cedar; the dark clusters on viburnums and black gum; and the tan, rattling seedheads of the meadow plantings at Kenilworth and the Arboretum, which feed goldfinches and sparrows through the cold. Garden chrysanthemums, pansies, and the last American Beauty roses persist until the freezes deepen.
Garden This Month
November is the District's wind-down and protection month. Cold-hardy crops carry on — kale, collards, spinach, leeks, carrots, turnips, and Brussels sprouts sweeten under the first frosts, and a low tunnel or row cover keeps spinach and mâche cutting through the cold. Harvest the last roots before a hard freeze locks the ground, and dig and store any remaining sweet potatoes and tender bulbs.
Finish planting garlic and spring bulbs, and mulch garlic beds, asparagus crowns, and tender perennials heavily once the soil cools. Drain and store hoses, clean and oil tools, empty and store containers, and shred fallen leaves for mulch and the compost pile. This is a fine time to plant dormant trees and shrubs and to take a soil test. Leave perennial seedheads, brush piles, and leaf litter for overwintering birds, insects, and butterflies.
Zone 7a (cooler uplands and Rock Creek corridor): the first hard freezes arrive — protect remaining greens under heavy row cover, mulch garlic and perennials, and finish bulb planting before the ground chills.
Zone 7b (warmer downtown and riverside core): the heat island delays the deep freeze, so cold-hardy kale, spinach, and collards keep producing in protected beds well into the month. Finish planting garlic and bulbs.
What's at the Farmers Market
November markets in D.C. turn fully to the fall harvest and storage crops. Apples and pears from the Blue Ridge orchards remain abundant and crisp, alongside winter squash, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, and celeriac at Eastern Market and the FreshFarm stalls.
The frost-sweetened greens are at their best — kale, collards, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and spinach — and you'll find cranberries, fresh-pressed cider, local honey, eggs, mushrooms, and the produce for the Thanksgiving table. Choose root vegetables that are firm and heavy and keep them cold and humid in the crisper; pick winter squash that feels hard with a dry stem and store it cool and dry; choose Brussels sprouts on the stalk for the longest keeping. The market mood is harvest-and-store as winter approaches.
Night Sky This Month
November's long, early-dark nights return the brilliant winter stars to the District's evening sky. The Pleiades and orange Aldebaran in Taurus climb the eastern sky after dusk, and by late evening Orion clears the horizon, leading the dazzling winter parade. Capella in Auriga rides high in the northeast, while the autumn square of Pegasus sinks westward.
The Leonid meteor shower peaks in the dark hours before dawn around mid-November, radiating swift, bright meteors from rising Leo in the east — usually modest, but capable of stronger showings in some years. The Andromeda Galaxy rides overhead, a fine binocular target on a moonless night beyond the city glow.
For the Leonids and the darkest skies, drive out into the rural Maryland or Virginia countryside. The printable Washington, D.C. night-sky guide gives this year's Leonid timing and planet positions for the District.
Butterflies & Pollinators
November all but ends the District's butterfly year, but the season's hardiest fliers persist on the warmest afternoons. Common buckeyes, clouded and orange sulphurs, cabbage whites, and the occasional painted lady or red admiral may still nectar at the last asters and warm sunny edges early in the month before the freezes shut them down. The overwintering adults — mourning cloak, eastern comma, and question mark — take their final meals of fallen fruit and tree sap and settle into hibernation behind loose bark, in woodpiles, and in the rock crevices of Rock Creek Park, where they'll wait out the winter as full adults. The rest of the District's butterflies are now safely tucked into their overwintering stages: monarch is far to the south, while swallowtails wait as chrysalides on spicebush and tulip-tree twigs and red-spotted purples as half-grown caterpillars in rolled leaf shelters. Leave the leaf litter, brush, and standing stems undisturbed — they are the winter dormitory the city's butterflies depend on.
Trees This Month
November finishes the District's leaf fall, the late-coloring trees holding on after the early changers drop. The oaks are last and longest — the official scarlet oak, the white, red, and willow oaks hold russet, bronze, and deep-red leaves well into the month, and the beeches turn coppery before settling into the tan winter foliage they'll keep all season. Sweetgum drops its spiky seed balls, and the ginkgos planted along city streets blaze gold and drop all at once.
By month's end the canopy is largely bare, revealing the architecture of Rock Creek's tulip trees and the Mall's vase-shaped American elms. The evergreens stand out again — native American holly heavy with red berries, eastern red cedar, and the pines of the dry slopes. The smooth gray beech trunks and the mottled, peeling bark of the riverside sycamores along the Potomac take center stage as winter settles in.
Go deeper with the Washington, D.C. guides
The complete Washington, D.C. birding, native-plant, wildflower, and night-sky guides — or the whole year in one bundle.
Same month elsewhere: November in Florida · November in Georgia · November in Idaho