What to look for in nature in Oregon this February

When do bald eagle numbers peak in the Klamath Basin?

• The morning fly-out from Bear Valley

  First light, through February and into March · Lower Klamath refuge; Township Road and Lower Lake Road

  Bear Valley National Wildlife Refuge protects a night roost: 4,200 acres, mostly old-growth ponderosa pine, incense cedar and fir, where eagles and other raptors sleep out of the wind. The refuge itself is closed to visitors, but the birds can be seen leaving it. The birding trail guide describes them flying out at dawn to feed over Lower Klamath and the flooded farm fields around Township Road and Lower Lake Road. Get there in the dark, stay in your car with the engine off, and count how many pass in each minute after the first one appears.

• Where to see them through the day

  Mid-morning to afternoon · Lower Klamath and Tule Lake refuges; Klamath Wildlife Area at Miller Island

  After the fly-out, eagles spread across the basin. The birding trail lists Lower Klamath refuge, Township Road, Tule Lake refuge and the state's Klamath Wildlife Area at Miller Island as the best places to find them. Look for dark shapes standing on the ice next to open water, or a cluster of eagles in one cottonwood. Many of the birds are young ones, mottled brown and white, without the adults' white head and tail.

• The Winter Wings Festival

  Annual; usually Presidents' Day weekend in February · Klamath Falls

  Klamath Basin Audubon Society's four-day festival of guided trips and programs is timed for the eagle peak. The 2027 program had not been announced when this guide was written, so look for it through the Klamath Basin Birding Trails events page or the Audubon chapter before booking a room.

When do the first spring birds come back to Malheur?

When do frogs start calling in Oregon?

• Pacific treefrogs (Pacific chorus frogs)

  Breeding from February to July, depending on location; loudest on mild, damp evenings · Ponds, wet meadows, seasonal pools, roadside ditches and stock tanks statewide

  ODFW calls this two-inch frog, green or bronze with a dark stripe through each eye, the smallest and most commonly seen and heard frog in Oregon. The agency's fact sheet says treefrogs move into breeding water anywhere from February to July depending on the place, which means the low, mild west side first and the high desert last. Males call mainly in the evening and at night, floating at the surface or half under water, and one caller sets off the rest. A female lays 400 to 750 eggs in small clumps of 10 to 75, each about half the size of a tennis ball, fixed to sticks or stems just below the surface, where algae and silt soon disguise them.

• Northern red-legged frogs

  Breeding usually begins in February, in a short burst at each pond · Shaded ponds and wetlands from the coast to the west Cascades, including the Willamette Valley

  This larger brown frog, with a red wash on the underside of the hind legs, spends most of the year in moist forest away from water. ODFW's Willamette Valley frog notes say red-legged frogs usually begin breeding in February, and each female leaves a single large egg mass attached to underwater stems. Their call is quiet and often given from below the surface, so you are more likely to find the eggs than to hear the frogs. The species is on Oregon's Conservation Strategy list for the Coast Range, Klamath Mountains, West Cascades and Willamette Valley, and invasive bullfrogs are among its threats.

Which Oregon birds are already on nests in February?

• Bald eagles

  Pairs repair nests in winter; egg laying in late winter and early spring · Near estuaries, rivers, reservoirs and lakes statewide

  Oregon's nesting eagles are a recovery story. A 30-year Oregon State University study counted 65 occupied breeding areas in Oregon in 1978 and 496 by 2007, and its yearly surveys of nests started on February 1. The same study found that eagles west of the Cascades had moved their egg laying about five days earlier over those decades, which the authors linked to warmer late winters. The Oregon Forest Resources Institute notes that nests can measure 5 to 6 feet across; the Oregon Forest Practices Act protects a 330-foot buffer around an active nest tree on state and private land. Watch from well away, since a pair disturbed now may abandon its eggs.

• Great horned owls

  Many pairs incubating in February; the first owlets hatch late in the month · Woodlots, riverside cottonwoods, farm groves, city parks and rimrock canyons

  Pairs that laid eggs in January are sitting tight this month, and the eggs hatch about a month after they are laid. Look for a pair of feathered ear tufts sticking up over the rim of an old hawk or heron nest, or from the top of a broken snag, with the mate often perched in a nearby tree. When the hooting goes quiet in a park where you heard a duet in January, the owls may simply be busy.

What flowers first in Oregon at the end of winter?

• Indian plum (osoberry)

  Flowers usually appear by late winter · Stream banks, forest edges and city natural areas at low elevation west of the Cascades

  This shrub's drooping clusters of small greenish-white flowers open while most of the woods are bare, and its pale new leaves unfold at the same time. The USDA's Corvallis Plant Materials Center describes it as frequently the earliest native leaf-dropping shrub to bloom, and a key source of early nectar for hummingbirds, native bees and other pollinators. Male and female flowers are usually on separate plants, so only some bushes will set fruit. Crush a leaf and it smells like cucumber.

• Western skunk cabbage

  Yellow hoods emerge from about February on the coast, later inland and uphill · Swamps, seeps, alder bottoms and wet ditches, from the coast to the Cascades

  The Oregon Encyclopedia notes that on the Oregon coast the bright yellow hood, or spathe, and the flower spike inside it traditionally began to come up in February. The giant glossy leaves follow, and the musky smell gives the plant its name. Across the plant's whole range, from California to Alaska, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center lists bloom from March to May, so inland and higher up, expect it later.

• Grass widows in the Gorge

  First flowers on warm slopes in some Februaries; the main show from March · Open, rocky ground in the eastern Columbia River Gorge, Mosier to The Dalles

  These purple-pink six-petaled lilies are traditionally the first wildflowers of the eastern Gorge, and Gorge wildflower watchers have logged them in bloom on sunny south-facing slopes in early to mid-February in mild years. The Nature Conservancy's Tom McCall Preserve at Rowena is famous for them, but it is closed until March 1 each year to protect its soils when they are wet.

How can I join a bird count in Oregon in February?

• The Great Backyard Bird Count

  Friday, February 12, to Monday, February 15, 2027 · Anywhere: a yard, a park, a refuge, a school

  Audubon and Birds Canada, two of the count's organizers, list the 30th count as February 12 to 15, 2027. Pick any of the four days, give it a quarter hour or more, note every species you see or hear, and submit it through eBird, the Merlin app or the count's website, birdcount.org. The four days fall over Presidents' Day weekend, which makes this an easy add-on to a trip to Klamath or the Willamette Valley refuges, where a single checklist can hold thousands of geese.

• Project FeederWatch

  Through April 30 · Feeders and yards

  The Cornell Lab's winter-long feeder count keeps going until the end of April. February is a good time to start if you missed the fall: varied thrushes, juncos and Anna's hummingbirds are still at west-side feeders, and the first flocks of migrants may stop by later in the month.

Can you see gray whales off Oregon in February?

• The lull before the spring migration

  February into March · High headlands; the state park Whale Watching Center in Depoe Bay

  Most of the population is far south now, in the Baja California lagoons where the young are born. ODFW notes that mothers with calves stay in the lagoons a month or two longer than the other whales, and that the northbound trip, in April and later, is slower and closer to shore. Late stragglers and early northbound adults can turn up in February, so scan from a headland on any calm day, but expect long gaps.

• Spring Whale Watch Week

  March 20 to 28, 2027 · Volunteer stations along the coast

  The Whale Watching Spoken Here program has already posted its spring 2027 dates, March 20 to 28, when trained volunteers will be at viewpoints to help visitors spot blows.

How snowy is February in Oregon, and what will a very strong El Niño do?

• Last year's record-low snowpack

  Winter 2025 to 2026 · Statewide

  The winter just past is a warning. The federal drought service reported that Oregon's April 1, 2026, snow water equivalent was the lowest since SNOTEL measurements began in 1981, beating the old record from 2015: on April 5 the statewide average was about 2.1 inches of water, roughly 12 percent of the median peak. Record warmth, 5 to 9 °F above average over most of the state, was the main cause, turning much of the winter's precipitation to rain. The Natural Resources Conservation Service's Oregon Snow Survey publishes a new water supply outlook early each month from January to June; the one dated February 1 shows how this winter compares.

• The El Niño in the background

  Through late winter · Statewide

  In its discussion of September 10, 2026, the federal Climate Prediction Center gave Oregon's coming winter a greater than nine-in-ten chance of sitting under a very strong El Niño. Across Washington, Oregon and Idaho, the USDA Northwest Climate Hub sums up the usual result as a warmer, drier winter with more of the precipitation falling as rain instead of snow, which leaves less runoff for summer. The strongest events do not always follow the pattern, though: 2015 to 2016 turned out wetter than normal over much of the region. Oregon's state climatologist, Larry O'Neill, has said that in very strong El Niño winters, storms tend to come in from farther south, carrying tropical moisture into southern and central Oregon as heavy rain more than snow. NOAA updates its three-month outlooks monthly at the Climate Prediction Center.

How much daylight does Oregon gain in February?

What can you see in the Oregon night sky in February 2027?

• Mercury low in the west

  Greatest elongation the evening of Tuesday, February 2; a thin moon nearby on Sunday, February 7 · West-southwest, 30 to 45 minutes after sunset

  Mercury rarely stands far from the sun, and early February gives this winter's best evening look, at about 18 degrees from the sun. Find a clear western horizon and look low in the twilight from late January to about February 10. Sunday the 7th adds a bonus: a slim day-old crescent beside the planet, which in Portland follows the sun down at 6:50 p.m.

• Jupiter at opposition

  Wednesday, February 10, 4:21 p.m. PST · Rising in the east at sunset, high in the south around midnight

  Earth now lies on a straight line between the sun and Jupiter. From Portland or Pendleton, watch the planet clear the eastern skyline around dusk and ride across the sky until dawn, at peak brilliance for 2027. Brace binoculars on a fence or car roof and look for up to four pinpoint moons strung out beside it, rearranged each night.

• Mars at opposition

  Friday morning, February 19; nearest Earth on February 20 · East after dark, near Jupiter and the star Regulus in Leo

  Mars follows Jupiter by eight days. Its nearest approach, on Saturday the 20th, still leaves some 63 million miles between us. For Mars that is a far-off opposition, so to the eye it is simply a vivid, steady ember of a star. Compare its steady color with Jupiter's creamy white light nearby.

• The Snow Moon

  Full at 3:23 p.m. PST, Saturday, February 20 · Rising in the east around sunset

  Full phase arrives mid-afternoon, and Portland sees the moon come up at 5:52 p.m., a few minutes after sunset, with Regulus, Jupiter and Mars all nearby in Leo. Perigee falls about 40 hours before full, close enough for some almanacs to call this a supermoon. On Friday night, the 19th, watch the moon slide past Jupiter, very close. A faint penumbral eclipse also happens on the 20th, but it ends before the moon rises anywhere in Oregon (5:13 p.m. PST; 6:13 p.m. MST in Ontario, where moonrise is 6:29 p.m.), so there is nothing to see here.

• Venus before dawn, Saturn after dusk

  All month · Venus low in the southeast at dawn; Saturn low in the west after sunset

  Venus still blazes before sunrise. Saturn drops lower into the dusk week by week, so look for it in the first half of the month.

What can families do outside in Oregon in February?

What should I watch out for outdoors in Oregon in February?