Pennsylvania Nature Guide: February 2026
Data updated: August 2026Sources & method · Corrections
February is late winter in Pennsylvania, but the first cracks of spring appear — sap begins to run in the sugar maples, and one of the great wildlife spectacles in the East builds at Middle Creek as tens of thousands of Snow Geese and Tundra Swans stage on the thawing impoundments.
Week by week in February
January 29 – February 4
- Great horned owls are already on eggs in the cold woods, and male cardinals begin their clear spring whistles on mild mornings.
- Storage apples from Adams County and root-cellar crops carry the winter markets, alongside year-round Kennett Square mushrooms.
- Start the slowest seedlings — onions, leeks, and celery — under grow lights, and finish ordering seeds for the season ahead.
February 5–11
- Snow Geese and Tundra Swans begin gathering at Middle Creek WMA as the ice opens — the leading edge of one of the East's great waterfowl spectacles.
- The sugar-maple sap begins to run in the Pocono and northern-tier sugarbush as freezing nights alternate with thawing days.
- Prune dormant apple and pear trees and grapes on mild, dry days before the sap rises and buds swell.
February 12–18
- Bald eagles are pairing and refurbishing nests, and the first red-winged blackbirds and grackles trickle back into the Piedmont.
- The season's first fresh maple syrup appears at producer stands as the sugarbush comes alive with taps and tubing.
- Leo the Lion climbs in the east after dark with the bright star Regulus, while brilliant Orion still rules the southern evening sky.
February 19–25
- The Middle Creek Snow Goose and Tundra Swan staging builds toward its climax — tens of thousands lift off in roaring white clouds at dawn and dusk.
- On an unusually warm afternoon, an overwintered mourning cloak may flutter briefly along a sunlit woodland edge — the year's first butterfly.
- Snowdrops and witch hazel open in the mildest southeastern gardens during a late-February thaw.
Birds This Month
Late February brings Pennsylvania's most famous bird event: the Snow Goose and Tundra Swan staging at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in the Lebanon–Lancaster county border country. As the ice opens, tens of thousands of snow geese — sometimes well over 100,000 — pile onto the main impoundment alongside thousands of tundra swans and Canada geese, lifting off in roaring white clouds at dawn and dusk. It is one of the great waterfowl gatherings in the eastern United States, and it peaks in the last days of February into early March.
Elsewhere, wintering bald eagles are now pairing and refurbishing nests, and great horned owls are already on eggs in the cold woods. Open rivers still hold mergansers, goldeneye, and common loons, while the first red-winged blackbirds, common grackles, and killdeer return to the Piedmont late in the month. Feeders stay busy with cardinals, chickadees, titmice, and juncos, and the male cardinals begin their clear spring whistles on mild mornings.
What's Blooming
February's wildflower show is still mostly the architecture of winter, but the first true stirrings begin. In wet woods, seeps, and stream margins, the mottled maroon-and-green hoods of skunk cabbage push up through frozen mud — generating their own metabolic heat to melt their way clear — and stand as Pennsylvania's earliest blooming native plant. The dried seed-heads of milkweed, goldenrod, coneflower, and black-eyed Susan still catch the snow in old fields.
In the mildest southeastern gardens and woodlands, the season cracks open: snowdrops and winter aconite push through cold soil, native witch hazel unfurls its spidery yellow ribbons, and the earliest crocuses open on warm afternoons. Evergreen woodland plants — wintergreen, partridgeberry, and Christmas fern — keep their green beneath the melting snow. The maple buds swell red against the gray branches, the first visible sign that the long northern winter is finally loosening its grip.
Garden This Month
February is the indoor-starting month for Pennsylvania gardeners. Under grow lights, sow the long-season crops that need a head start: onions, leeks, celery, celeriac, and, late in the month, peppers and early tomatoes in the warmer south. Finish ordering seeds and start cleaning, sharpening, and oiling tools so they are ready when the ground thaws.
Outdoors, the freeze-thaw season is hard on plants. Watch for frost-heaved perennials and gently press them back into the soil. On mild, dry days, prune dormant apple and pear trees, grapes, and summer-blooming shrubs before the sap rises and buds swell. This is also the heart of maple-tapping season across the Poconos and northern tier — when nights still freeze but days climb above freezing, the sap runs. Keep brushing wet, heavy snow off evergreens, and resist walking on or working soggy, half-frozen beds, which destroys soil structure.
Zone 5b (Allegheny & northern uplands): still firmly winter, with frozen ground and snow cover. Keep the planning going, start onions and leeks indoors under lights, and tap sugar maples on mild days as the sap begins to flow late in the month.
Zone 6b (much of central & western PA): a planning-and-starting month. Start onions, leeks, and the slowest seedlings indoors, prune dormant fruit trees and grapes on thawed days, and check that mulch and tree wrap have held through the freeze-thaw cycles.
Zone 7a (southeastern Piedmont): the mildest corner. Direct-sow peas and spinach in a cold frame or under cover late in the month, start cool-season transplants indoors, and prune dormant trees and shrubs before the buds break.
What's at the Farmers Market
February markets still lean on storage crops, but the first fresh local product of the new year arrives: maple syrup, as the sap begins to run in the sugarbush. Indoor winter markets and farm stands carry storage apples from Adams County, potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, and winter squash from the root cellar, plus cold-stored cabbage and leeks.
Greenhouse and high-tunnel growers supply tender spinach, kale, lettuce, microgreens, and herbs, and Pennsylvania's year-round Kennett Square mushrooms remain abundant and cheap. Value-added staples — honey, cheeses, eggs, and apple cider — round out the stands. Choose the firmest storage apples and squash with hard rinds, keep roots cold and humid, and look for the season's very first maple syrup at producer stands toward month's end, a clear sign that spring is on the way.
Night Sky This Month
February's clear, cold nights still showcase the brilliant winter sky. Orion remains high in the south after dusk, flanked by the Winter Hexagon of Sirius, Procyon, Pollux, Capella, Aldebaran, and Rigel, with the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters riding overhead and the Orion Nebula a misty glow in binoculars. As the night deepens, the spring stars begin to climb in the east — Leo the Lion rises, and the Beehive cluster in Cancer rewards binoculars.
There is no major meteor shower in February, so this is a month for deep-sky observing under crisp, transparent skies. The Andromeda Galaxy sets in the northwest while the galaxy fields of Leo begin their season in the east. The dark plateaus around Cherry Springs State Park offer some of the best winter transparency in the East. The printable Pennsylvania night-sky guide lists this year's exact planet positions, conjunctions, and the best dark-sky sites near you for the cold, clear nights ahead.
Butterflies & Pollinators
February is still winter for Pennsylvania's butterflies, but the season's very edge is near. On an unusually warm, sunny late-February afternoon, an overwintering mourning cloak or eastern comma may briefly emerge from behind bark or a woodpile to bask in a sunny clearing — Pennsylvania's first butterflies of the year, often flying while snow still lingers in shaded hollows.
The rest of the state's butterflies remain dormant in their winter quarters. Monarchs are still clustered in the high fir forests of central Mexico, weeks from beginning their northward journey. The great spangled fritillary lies as a tiny first-instar caterpillar in the leaf litter, the eastern tiger and spicebush swallowtails as well-camouflaged chrysalises, and countless skippers and whites as overwintering eggs and larvae. The single best thing a gardener can do this month is to leave last year's leaf litter, hollow stems, and brush piles untouched — they are full of the next generation.
What to plant for them is in the Pennsylvania native plants guide
Trees This Month
February's bare woods still show their winter structure, but the trees are stirring. The biggest event is the sugar maple sap run across the Poconos and northern tier: when freezing nights alternate with thawing days, the sap flows, and the sugarbush comes alive with taps and tubing. Red maple buds swell and redden, and the silvery catkins of pussy willow and the dangling tassels of American hazelnut and speckled alder begin to emerge along wet edges late in the month.
The bark trees still command attention in the leafless landscape — shaggy shagbark hickory, smooth gray American beech holding its pale dead leaves, and ghostly white sycamore along the streams. The evergreens carry the green: eastern hemlock, the state tree, in the gorges; eastern white pine on the slopes; and red spruce on the high northern bogs. Buds tighten and swell on every twig, and the year's first pollen — from the maples and alders — is only weeks away.
The Pennsylvania native plants guide covers what grows with them
Weather & Daylight
Across Pennsylvania, a typical February day averages a high near 38°F and a low near 20°F, with about 2.6 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Still bitter and gray, with highs barely nudging above freezing and frequent precipitation that can turn to icy slush.
| Average high | 38°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 20°F |
| Precipitation | 2.6 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 7:05 ET |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 17:45 ET |
Figures are statewide averages over the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals; local conditions vary with elevation and distance from the coast. Sunrise and sunset are computed for a midstate point on the 15th (ET).
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One short note when Pennsylvania's next month turns — what's arriving, blooming, and worth a night outside.
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The complete Pennsylvania birding, native-plant, and night-sky references — or the whole year, week by week, in one book.
Same month elsewhere: February in Rhode Island · February in South Carolina · February in South Dakota