What to look for in nature in New Hampshire this February

When is New Hampshire’s Backyard Winter Bird Survey in 2027?

• How to take part

  Any time on February 13 or 14, 2027 · Your own yard, statewide

  Watch the birds around your house for as long as you like that weekend, fifteen minutes or a whole morning, write down each species and how many you see, and send the list in through NH Audubon’s online form. No experience is needed, and the survey’s quick identification guides cover the usual feeder birds.

• What the counts have shown

  Trends since 1987 · Statewide

  In her report on the 2025 survey, NH Audubon conservation biologist Pamela Hunt wrote that Carolina wrens passed 1,000 for the first time, red-bellied woodpeckers set a record of 1,389, and eastern bluebirds were closing in on 5,000. All three are birds that were scarce or absent in a New Hampshire winter a generation ago. Hunt also counts a growing list of "half-hardies," birds that usually winter farther south but now linger: 42 yellow-bellied sapsuckers in 2025 were more than five times the old record. Going the other way, black-capped chickadees per observer are about half what they were 40 years ago.

• A goldfinch winter

  February 14 and 15, 2026 · Statewide

  The 2026 survey drew 2,256 participants, a new high, who reported 82 species. American goldfinches led with 21,615, more than twice the 2025 total, and the list included a few real surprises for February: a chipping sparrow, a rose-breasted grosbeak and a dickcissel.

• The Great Backyard Bird Count, the same weekend

  Friday, February 12, to Monday, February 15, 2027 · Anywhere in the world

  Audubon, Birds Canada and Cornell’s bird lab hold their 30th global count over Presidents’ Day weekend. Their minimum is 15 minutes on any day of the four; lists go in through birdcount.org, eBird or Merlin, and a single Saturday tally can serve NH Audubon as well.

When does maple sugaring season start in New Hampshire?

• Tapping into deep snow

  Late February in many years · Sugarbushes from the Monadnock Region to the Lakes Region

  UNH Extension notes that serious sugarmakers tap in January or February so the holes are ready for the first thaw, and that a season can open in late February and carry into early April with several stops and starts. In 2026, producers began tapping around February 17 with the woods still deep in snow; Mike Moore of Sunnyside Maples in Loudon told the Concord Monitor that frozen trees with snow packed around the base were slow to give sap, and he expected the cold to stretch the season into April. The state’s producers made about 152,000 gallons of syrup in 2025, the paper reported.

• Tapping a tree at home

  When the forecast shows freezing nights and thawing days · A healthy sugar or red maple in the yard

  UNH Extension’s beginner tips: tap only trees at least 12 inches across at chest height, with one tap below 18 inches and two above. One tap gives roughly a gallon of sap per run, and a season brings 8 to 10 runs. Most sap is about 2 percent sugar, so by the Jones Rule of 86 it takes some 43 gallons to boil down to one gallon of syrup. Keep collected sap below 40 °F, as you would milk, because it spoils fast above 50 °F.

When are bear cubs born in New Hampshire, and why are coyotes howling in February?

• Cubs the size of a chipmunk

  Born in January; nursing in the den through February · Dens statewide, from brush piles to hollow trees

  Fish and Game says New Hampshire’s black bears give birth in their winter dens in January, after a pregnancy of about eight months. A newborn is hairless, blind, 6 to 8 inches long and under a pound. In the den a bear’s body temperature falls by 7 to 8 °C, its metabolism by about half, and its heart rate from 40 to 50 beats a minute to between 8 and 19, and over the winter it loses roughly a quarter of its weight. Bears here usually den from between mid-October and late November until late March or early April; males sometimes rouse and wander in a winter thaw. The state holds an estimated 4,800 to 5,000 bears.

• Coyotes calling

  Breeding season January to March, with pups born in early May · Every county, in fields, swamps and river valleys

  Fish and Game describes the eastern coyote as a 30- to 50-pound animal that usually keeps one mate for life and is "quite vocal" during its January to March breeding season. February nights are when you are most likely to hear a group yip-howl. Pairs defend territories of 5 to 25 square miles, and both parents raise the pups, sometimes with help from a yearling. The first verified coyote in New Hampshire was in Grafton County in 1944; between 1972 and 1980 they spread across the state, from Colebrook to Seabrook. Watch the snow for two sets of tracks traveling together, a sign of a mated pair.

When do bald eagles start nesting in New Hampshire?

• Sticks, grass and courtship

  From January; most visible in February · Big pines and other tall trees beside lakes and rivers

  Volunteer nest watchers report pairs flying in with sticks and grasses to build up their nests. Fish and Game notes that eagles often keep the same mate for years and reuse the same nest, adding to it each season, and that the female lays 1 to 3 eggs, which both parents incubate for about five weeks. Two adults perched side by side near a big stick nest in February are very likely a breeding pair.

• How to watch and report

  All season · From a distance

  If an eagle turns to stare at you or flushes, you are too close; back away. NH Audubon asks people to report new nests or pairs to its raptor biologist, or to enter them in eBird.

When is the Meredith ice fishing derby in 2027?

• How the derby works

  February 13 and 14, 2027 · Any public freshwater in New Hampshire; headquarters on Meredith Bay, Lake Winnipesaukee

  Ticket holders may enter fish caught through the ice on either day from any public fresh water in the state, under all of Fish and Game’s regular rules, and the heaviest fish win. The 2026 rules set minimum lengths: 22 inches for lake trout, cusk and pickerel, 17 for rainbow trout, 14 for white perch, 13 for black crappie and 12 for yellow perch. Salmon, bass and brown trout are not accepted; the derby reminds anglers that salmon are out of season in February. Prizes total more than $80,000, and you do not need to be present to win. Anglers 16 and older need a New Hampshire fishing license.

• Where the fish go

  Sunday afternoon of derby weekend · Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, Holderness

  Fish nobody claims go, frozen, to the science center in Holderness, which feeds them to its otters, bears, eagles and other animals through the rest of the winter. The derby notes that the otters are especially fond of frozen trout.

• A first try for children

  Derby Saturday in recent years · On the ice near Hesky Park

  In 2025 the derby and Fish and Game’s Let’s Go Fishing program ran a free children’s clinic on the Saturday, gear included and no license needed; check the derby’s website for any 2027 sessions.

Why are there seals on New Hampshire beaches in winter?

• Harp and hooded seals

  Mid-January into spring · Sandy beaches and rocky shores from Seabrook to New Castle

  Both species are born on pack ice in the Arctic and off eastern Canada, and the ones that reach New Hampshire are mostly young. A young harp seal, called a beater, is cream with scattered brown spots; adults are light gray with a black face and a dark curved band on the back that gives the species its name. A young hooded seal, or blueback, has a dark, silvery gray back and a pale belly. NOAA Fisheries notes that adult harp seals also turn up on New England beaches now and then in late winter.

• Why a seal on the sand is not in trouble

  Any time · The beach

  Seals haul out to rest, and a seal lying still above the tide line is usually doing just that. The risk comes from people. Harp and hooded seals eat snow and ice for water, and when stressed or unwell they may swallow sand and pebbles instead, which can block the gut and kill them. That is why distance matters so much with these two.

• What to do

  If you find any seal out of the water · The Seacoast, Great Bay and tidal rivers

  Stay at least 150 feet back, the distance federal law sets, and keep dogs leashed and away. Do not offer food or water, pour water on it, cover it or try to push it back into the sea. Report it to the Seacoast Science Center’s 24-hour marine mammal hotline, 603-997-9448, so trained responders can check on it.

What are the first signs of spring in New Hampshire in February?

• Winter stoneflies on the snow

  Emerging from January, most in February, tapering off in March · Snow and rocks beside clean, fast brooks

  On a sunny midday near a stream, look for small dark insects with long wings folded flat over the back, walking across the snow. These are winter stoneflies. In The Outside Story, the late biologist Bill Amos described how their nymphs feed among the rocks of icy brooks all winter, then crawl out onto sun-warmed stones to shed their skins as adults. Their dark bodies soak up the sun’s warmth. A hand lens shows the long antennae and two short tails.

• The chickadee’s spring song

  Late winter into spring · Yards, town forests and feeders

  The black-capped chickadee’s clear, two-note fee-bee, the second note lower, can be heard any month, but it becomes common in late winter. Naturalist Mary Holland explains it as the male staking out a territory and advertising for a mate.

• Woodpeckers drumming

  Starting in late winter on mild mornings · Dead limbs, hollow snags and the occasional gutter

  Drumming is not feeding. It is a woodpecker’s version of song, a claim to territory and a signal to a mate, and each species has its own rhythm. In The Outside Story, naturalist Bryan Pfeiffer gives the numbers: a downy woodpecker’s roll lasts about three-quarters of a second with around 13 beats, a hairy’s about a second with roughly twice as many, and a pileated’s a deep, resonant roll of three seconds or so. A yellow-bellied sapsucker drums like no other, more like Morse code: a stuttering start, then taps that slow and trail off.

How much daylight does New Hampshire gain in February?

Is February New Hampshire’s snowiest month, and what might El Niño do?

What can you see in the New Hampshire night sky in February 2027?

• Mercury after sunset

  Late January to about February 10; farthest from the sun on February 3 · Low in the west-southwest, half an hour to 45 minutes after sunset

  On the 3rd the little planet reaches 18 degrees east of the sun, its best evening showing of the winter. Pick a spot with no hills or trees to the west-southwest, such as a frozen lake. On Sunday, February 7, a crescent moon only a day past new sits right beside it; binoculars help.

• Jupiter at opposition

  Wednesday, February 10, at 7:21 p.m. · Rising in the east as the sun sets; due south around midnight

  Facing us squarely across from the sun, Jupiter is at its nearest for the year, roughly 405 million miles away, and at magnitude -2.5 it outshines every star from dusk until dawn. Steady binoculars on a fence rail show up to four of its large moons as tiny points in a line, rearranged each night.

• Mars at opposition

  Friday, February 19; closest to Earth on the 20th · In the east after dark, in Leo, not far from Jupiter and the star Regulus

  Mars glows orange at magnitude -1.2. Its least distance, about 63 million miles, is large for an opposition, because the red planet is nearly at its farthest from the sun; telescopes show only a small disk. Through the night of the 19th the swollen, nearly full moon creeps up beside Jupiter and passes very close to it.

• The Snow Moon, with a faint eclipse at moonrise

  Saturday, February 20; full at 6:23 p.m.; eclipse at its deepest at 6:13 p.m. and over by 8:13 p.m. · Low in the east at dusk

  The full moon rises around sunset already inside the pale outer part of Earth’s shadow, the penumbra. Even at its deepest this eclipse dims the moon only slightly, perhaps a faint gray shading along one edge, and with the moon low in bright twilight, it is easy to miss altogether. Calling it a supermoon depends on which almanac you read. The ring-shaped solar eclipse of February 6 belongs to Chile, Argentina and the ocean beyond; no part of it, partial or annular, can be seen from New Hampshire or any other state.

What can New Hampshire families do outdoors in February 2027?

Safety notes for February in New Hampshire