Wildlife Management Area · Missouri River Corridor · Missouri River; about 1,011 acres around Painted Woods Lake, with creek, lake, and riparian corridor draining to the Missouri
Approximate pin — a planning reference for the general area, not a trailhead or parking guarantee.
Spring and fall migration; summer riparian breeding
Peak months in the record: Apr, May, Sep, Oct
Pick any day of the coming week for sunrise, sunset, the low-light windows and the forecast at Painted Woods WMA.
Lake access and creek corridor; walk-in.
Free
Fall hunting; the area has seen flood-control construction, so check access before going.
The notes on this page come from the guide's fixed records and can age. These links open what the managing agency publishes right now — always the last word on access.
North Dakota Game and Fish Department (Wildlife Management Area)
Agency pages are found by searching the place name, so the search may list nearby units too — no page here is a stored link to a specific trailhead or gate.
No access check recorded for this place yet. Once you have confirmed the current rules with ND Game and Fish, mark it here so you can see how fresh your information is.
This only records that you checked. It never changes the guide's access notes and is not a statement from any agency.
Nobody publishes an open fall-colour peak map, so these are the dates volunteers recorded coloured leaves in North Dakota — a handful of plants at a handful of sites, not a statewide peak. Use the official reports below for the wider picture.
Leaf-out and leaf-colour timing: USA National Phenology Network (usanpn.org).
Waterfowl
Tap for recent sightings, where to go and today's light →
Backlit dawn takeoffs from river roosts near Bismarck give clean sky backgrounds minutes from home.
Illustration, not a field photograph · Real photos on All About Birds
Songbirds
Tap for recent sightings, where to go and today's light →
Willow thickets at eye level in morning light. In mid-May, Tennessee, Magnolia, Blackburnian, American Redstart, and Blackpoll warblers move through in the same week.
Illustration, not a field photograph · Real photos on All About Birds
These are historical public posts collected as supporting evidence. They are not live sightings and do not guarantee current bird activity. Photos are not copied here — each entry links to the original post.
No collected post is mapped to this place. Several posts name only free-text locations — see the evidence log for those.