New Mexico Nature Guide: February 2026
February is the hinge of the New Mexico winter — the cranes still crowd the Rio Grande, but the days are lengthening, owls are nesting, and the first warm spells stir the southern deserts toward spring. In the low Mesilla Valley the gardening year is already underway while the high country stays deep in snow.
What to look for this week
- Tens of thousands of sandhill cranes and snow geese are wintering at Bosque del Apache NWR; the dawn liftoff off the refuge ponds is the marquee New Mexico bird spectacle.
- The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks around January 3 in a short, sharp burst — the dark skies over the Chihuahuan desert basins make a fine viewing spot after midnight.
- Mid-winter is bare-root planting time in the warm southern valleys; set out dormant fruit trees and pecans around Las Cruces while the soil is cool and moist.
- The leafless Rio Grande cottonwoods stand silver-gray along the bosque, their architecture fully exposed above the river.
Birds This Month
February holds the winter spectacle through its first weeks and then begins to loosen it. Sandhill cranes and snow geese still throng Bosque del Apache and the Middle Rio Grande early in the month, but by mid-February the flocks begin staging and thinning as the northbound pull strengthens and the first birds depart for their Rocky Mountain breeding grounds. Bald eagles remain along the river and reservoirs, and wintering ducks still raft on the open water.
Even in the cold, the breeding season is starting. Great horned owls are already on eggs in cottonwood snags and old hawk nests, their deep hooting carrying through the bosque at dusk, and resident red-tailed hawks begin courtship soaring over the foothills. The desert birds hold steady — coveys of scaled and Gambel's quail, the greater roadrunner sunning on cold mornings — while the eastern plains and Estancia Valley keep their wintering ferruginous hawks and prairie falcons.
Late in the month, the first signs of spring arrive. Say's phoebes return to nest ledges and porch eaves, their soft down-slurred call an early herald, and the earliest turkey vultures may reappear over the warm southern valleys.
This month's tip: catch the cranes before they go. The first half of February is your last reliable window for the full Bosque del Apache spectacle, and a still, cold morning fly-off is worth the early start.
What's Blooming
February brings the first stirrings of bloom to the warm corners of New Mexico while the rest of the state waits. In the Mesilla Valley and the southern Chihuahuan desert, lengthening days and mild afternoons bring out the earliest desert marigold on gravelly flats and the tiny annuals — bladderpod and spring whitlow-grass — that respond fast to any winter moisture.
This is the month the desert's potential becomes visible. After a wet winter, the basal rosettes of desert poppies, globemallow, and other annuals carpet the southern flats in green, building toward the spring display, while a dry winter keeps the ground brown. The evergreen creosote bush may open its first small yellow flowers in the warmest south, and fourwing saltbush and ocotillo stand ready along the washes.
Where to see it: the southern desert around Las Cruces, the Bootheel, and the lower Rio Grande is where February color first appears. Walk the south-facing gravel benches and arroyo edges; if the winter has been wet, the green haze of annual seedlings tells you a strong March and April bloom is coming. In the cold north and the mountains, the flower season is still weeks away.
Garden This Month
February is when the New Mexico gardening year truly begins in the warm south while the north finishes its dormant-season chores. The most time-sensitive job statewide is seed-starting: chiles and peppers are slow to germinate and need a long head start, so get New Mexico chile, tomato, and pepper seeds under lights now to have stout transplants ready for the spring planting windows. Onions and leeks, also slow, should be growing strong by now.
Finish the dormant-season work before bud-break: prune deciduous fruit trees, grapes, and roses, and complete bare-root planting of fruit trees, pecans, and asparagus while everything is still at rest. In the southern valleys, direct-sow the cool-season crops — peas, spinach, carrots, beets, and lettuce — that thrive in the lengthening but still-cool days. Across the state, keep watching for late hard freezes; protect blossoms and tender seedlings with row cover, and continue shielding young tree trunks from the intense late-winter sun that causes sun-scald on the dry, bright days typical of a New Mexico February.
Zone 7a (Albuquerque, mid-elevation valleys): finish pruning dormant fruit trees, grapes, and roses, and plant bare-root fruit, pecans, and asparagus crowns late in the month as the ground thaws. Start chile, tomato, and pepper seeds indoors under lights now so transplants are ready for the May planting window. Outdoor planting still waits on the last frost.
Zone 8a (lower southern valleys): sow peas, spinach, carrots, beets, and lettuce in a mild spell, keeping row cover ready for cold fronts. Set out onion transplants and plant the last bare-root trees while they remain dormant. Begin hardening off any indoor seedlings on warm days.
Zone 8b (Mesilla Valley / Las Cruces): the warmest corner is in full swing — direct-sow cool-season crops, set out onions and early greens, and start the last warm-season seeds indoors. As frost risk fades toward the end of February, prepare beds for the earliest tomato and chile transplants of the year.
What's at the Farmers Market
February markets still lean on the winter storage crops and nuts. The Mesilla Valley pecan remains the standout — the Las Cruces region's harvest is still selling strong, and the rich nuts keep beautifully when refrigerated or frozen in-shell. Choose heavy, clean, unblemished nuts and keep them cold to protect the oils from going rancid.
The dried chiles continue to anchor New Mexico's winter markets. Whole dried red chile pods, ground red chile powder, and the hanging ristras are everywhere; look for deep, even red color and fully dry, intact pods, and store them in a cool, dry, airy place out of direct sun. Stored northern New Mexico apples from Velarde and Dixon are still crisp at the winter markets late in the keeping season — pick firm, heavy fruit and refrigerate them away from other produce.
Winter farmers markets in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces also carry hoop-house greens, overwintered spinach, hard winter squash, and root vegetables. The cold sweetens leafy greens and roots, so this is good eating; choose crisp, unwilted greens and store them dry in the crisper, and keep carrots and beets cool with their tops removed so the roots stay firm and fresh.
Night Sky This Month
New Mexico's dark skies keep February among the best stargazing months, with crisp, dry winter air and nights still long enough to catch full darkness early. The state's International Dark Sky places shine now — Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Capulin Volcano, Clayton Lake State Park with its observatory, the Cosmic Campground in the Gila (the country's first Dark Sky Sanctuary), and the dark ranchland of the Bootheel — all offer genuinely black skies far from the cities.
The brilliant winter constellations still dominate the early-evening sky. Orion rides high in the south with the three-star belt pointing down to Sirius, and Canis Major, the Pleiades, and the V-shaped face of Taurus marked by reddish Aldebaran fill the southern half of the sky. By late evening, the spring stars climb the east: the backward-question-mark Sickle of Leo clears the horizon, with bright Regulus at its base, hinting at the season to come.
February has no major meteor shower, which makes it a clean month for deep-sky observing — the Orion Nebula, the Pleiades, and the winter star clusters are spectacular through binoculars from a dark site. For the planets' positions and any minor activity this year, check the printable New Mexico night-sky guide for your latitude and date.
Butterflies & Pollinators
February remains a quiet butterfly month across most of New Mexico, but the warming southern deserts begin to show more than January did. The hardy overwinterers lead the way: on warm afternoons, the mourning cloak emerges from its winter shelter in bark crevices and woodpiles to bask along the Rio Grande bosque and foothill canyons, often the first butterfly anyone sees in the year.
In the mild Chihuahuan desert lowlands around Las Cruces, Deming, and the Bootheel, a sunny day can bring out a scatter of sleepy oranges, small sulphurs, and the occasional early painted lady nectaring on whatever desert annual has opened. These southern lowlands, where hard freezes are brief and infrequent, are the only part of the state with reliable late-winter butterfly activity, and they distinguish New Mexico from its colder neighbors to the north.
To prepare for the season ahead: February is still a planning month for the butterfly garden. Order and start native milkweed seed for the summer monarchs that move down the Rio Grande, and plan beds of desert globemallow, senna, and a long nectar succession of rabbitbrush, zinnia, and lantana so the garden is ready as the desert warms in March and the first big flights begin.
Trees This Month
February shows the New Mexico tree world still mostly at rest, but the first stirrings appear in the warm south. Along the lower Rio Grande in the Mesilla Valley, the buds on the Rio Grande cottonwoods begin to swell, and the earliest valley apricots and plums may push their first buds — always a gamble against the late frosts that define New Mexico orchard gardening. The bulk of the bosque cottonwoods, the foothill Gambel oak, and the high-country quaking aspen remain bare.
The evergreens continue to define the landscape. The two-needle piñon — the state tree — and the junipers hold the foothills and mesas dense gray-green, the vast piñon-juniper woodland that is New Mexico's most extensive forest. The tall ponderosa pines and the dark Douglas-fir and spruce of the high country stay green beneath the snow, and in the desert south the creosote bush keeps its small resinous leaves while the spiny mesquite stand bare and thorny, waiting for the warmth of May to leaf out.
Go deeper with the New Mexico guides
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Same month elsewhere: February in New York · February in North Carolina · February in North Dakota