Birch Compass
January 2026 — Oklahoma Nature Journal
What to look for this month near you, with room to record what you find.
This month in nature
Birds to watch
- Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura
- Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis
- Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos
- American Crow Corvus brachyrhynchos
- Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus
- Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus
In bloom
- Native witch-hazel may open thin yellow petal-ribbons in sheltered eastern Oklahoma hollows, the lone winter bloomer.
In the garden
- A planning and pruning month; order seed early and prune dormant fruit trees and grapes on the rare calm, mild day.
- Start onion and leek seeds indoors under lights now, the slowest transplants to get a head start on the Oklahoma spring.
- Plant bare-root fruit trees, blackberries, and roses while dormant, and tuck in onion sets late in the milder south.
Night sky
- The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks around January 3 in a short, sharp burst; look northeast after midnight from a dark western-Oklahoma sky.
- Orion stands high in the south after dark; trace his belt down to brilliant Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
- The Pleiades cluster and orange Aldebaran ride high overhead in the early evening above the dark Wichita Mountains.
My field notes