February is our shortest month, but this February also may have been our snowiest month of the winter. The month included our first blizzard of the year, which arrived in swirls of snowflakes being tormented by high-speed wind gusts. It looked like we were in a white dust storm, as you can see from this usually tranquil view of Conary Cove during what probably will become known as The Blizzard of ‘26:
Between snowstorms, we had interludes of classic winter weather that restored tranquil beauty to Conary Cove and the other iconic scenes that we record monthly — the near-mountain called Blue Hill, the vista of Mount Desert Island from Amen Ridge in Brooklin, and the summer house on Harbor Island overlooking Naskeag Harbor:
The snows of February transformed the landscape, especially the trees and bushes, during and after snowfalls:
Sea ice cluttered our bays, except at the mouths of large streams where rushing fresh waters fought the ice:
Typical Down East structures — from old boat houses, to large colonial inns, to small worksheds, to connected houses — also seemed to vary their moods with the February weather:
As you may have noticed, the paved public roads were kept well plowed during February, as were the unpaved private lanes that led to residences:
The snow in the flora may have been beautiful, but the winter fauna struggled to find food in it. Our white-tailed deer had to browse at dusk and dawn on exposed buds and wooden growth and our porcupines had to become snowplows to get food:
Wild turkeys roamed the plowed roads rather than try to plod through deep snow, nocturnal barred owls were forced to hunt in the day in residential gardens because they couldn’t hear and catch their prey under the relatively deep snow in fields, and our tough seagulls often stayed huddled on sea ice.
On the waterfront, vessels that dragged for scallops or that were used by divers to hand-harvest them and sea urchins stayed in the cold water. Others were spending their winter “on the hard” in varying stages of dress, and still others were being transported naked from indoor storage to the Brooklin Boat Yard to be painted for the upcoming sailing season.
Of course, February 14 is Valentine’s Day. For the many Maine outdoor enthusiasts, some of our artistic residents carved coastal hearts out of sea ice and lit them up with candles at night. My monthly column in the Ellsworth American was about Valentine gifts and featured a composite image of some of them, and a Love Card shop suddenly popped up in Blue Hill. Also, Santa hung around so that we could celebrate the gifting times of Christmas and Valentines’s Day simultaneousy.
The various phases of the moon in February were at times extraordinary, especially the month’s full moon. It’s known traditionally as The Snow Moon, a title that certainly was apt this year:
February usually is the last month for spectacular, warm-colored winter sunsets and afterglows and this year’s month followed that tradition:
And so, we say good bye to February of 2026. However, we’re still having a wonderful time and wish you were here.
(All images in this post were taken in Down East Maine during February of 2026, except the composite images that related to Valentine’s Day and the moon, in which some Leighton Archives images were merged.)