National Wildlife Refuge · Red River Valley · Red River Valley (Wild Rice River watershed; Prairie Pothole and tallgrass transition)
Verified coordinates from the source record. Still confirm the current entrance and road status before travelling.
April to May and September to October migration peaks; June to July for grassland songbirds and broods
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 Tewaukon NWR.
Visitor center, overlooks (North/South Overlook), boat ramps, White Tail Trail. Vehicle touring on refuge roads.
Free
Fall hunting in designated areas; gravel roads soft after rain.
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.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (National Wildlife Refuge)
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 USFWS, 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
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Work flooded fields and pothole lakes at dawn and dusk for massive lift-offs; 'tornado' departures are the signature shot. Late March to early April concentrations can number in the hundreds of thousands.
Illustration, not a field photograph · Real photos on All About Birds
Waterfowl
Tap for recent sightings, where to go and today's light →
Groups of shovelers spinning in feeding circles make great motion-blur and reflection shots.
Illustration, not a field photograph · Real photos on All About Birds
Other
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Huge wheeling flocks over marshes at dawn; in breeding plumage (black hood, rosy breast) they are among the prettiest gulls.
Illustration, not a field photograph · Real photos on All About Birds
Songbirds
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Display flights over native prairie in late May; males sing a bubbling song in fluttering flight. Photograph against big sky.
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.
2017-03-23 — Snow Goose
'Living cloud of white feathers'
Lake Tewaukon, ND · Tewaukon NWR
Open source poston Facebook (opens in a new tab; older posts may have been removed by their author)2026-09-02 — American White Pelican
Flock on shoreline, cormorants and gulls
Tewaukon NWR, sloughs near Wild Rice River headwaters · Tewaukon NWR
Open source poston Facebook (opens in a new tab; older posts may have been removed by their author)