Seacoast · Rye

Odiorne Point State Park

The highest bird list of any single site in New Hampshire — seven habitats on one walk.

Odiorne packs more habitat into 135 acres than anywhere else in the state, which is why its all-time list runs past 300 species. You can start in shrubby old fields full of migrant sparrows and warblers, cross a freshwater marsh, work a salt marsh, and finish scoping open ocean from the rocks — all inside an hour.

It’s a migrant trap in the classic sense: a green point sticking into the water, where night-migrating songbirds pile up at dawn after being drifted toward the coast. October mornings after a cold front can be very good, with Yellow-rumped Warblers everywhere and the chance of something lost.

In winter the draw is the seawatch — scoters, Long-tailed Duck, loons, grebes, Common and occasional King Eider, and on the right cold flat morning, a Razorbill past the surf line. Dress for standing still in wind.

Target birds here

Black-capped ChickadeeYear-round resident, every county Northern CardinalYear-round resident; still slowly expanding north and up in elevation Blue JayYear-round resident; big visible migration along ridges and the coast in fall Tufted TitmouseYear-round resident, southern and central NH; still expanding northward Common LoonBreeds on clear lakes statewide, a state conservation success story; winters on the seacoast Yellow-rumped WarblerCommon breeder in northern and montane conifers; abundant migrant; a few linger into winter on the coast Long-tailed DuckRegular but uncommon winter visitor to the seacoast, November–April; does not breed in NH RazorbillUncommon to rare winter visitor offshore, December–March; numbers vary a lot year to year

See Odiorne Point State Park on the migration map →