White Mountains & North Country · Errol

Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge

26,000 acres of lake, marsh, and boreal forest on the Maine border — New Hampshire's north-woods wetland at full scale.

Umbagog is the big one — a shallow northern lake ringed by some of the largest freshwater marshes in New Hampshire, backed by unbroken spruce-fir. It has been a Bald Eagle and Osprey stronghold since well before either recovered elsewhere in the state, and Common Loons nest around its edges in numbers.

The marshes hold American Bittern, American Black Duck, Ring-necked Duck, Sora and Virginia Rail, Sedge and Marsh Wrens, and Rusty Blackbird. The surrounding forest and bog is boreal-bird country: Gray Jay, Boreal Chickadee, Black-backed Woodpecker, Spruce Grouse, Palm Warbler, Lincoln’s Sparrow, and both Yellow-bellied and Olive-sided Flycatchers.

This is a paddle-in destination as much as a drive-to one. A canoe trip up the Magalloway or into the Leonard Pond marshes on a still June morning is one of the great New Hampshire birding experiences.

Target birds here

Hairy WoodpeckerYear-round resident, mature forest statewide; less numerous than the Downy Red-breasted NuthatchYear-round in northern and montane conifers; irruptive elsewhere, abundant some winters and nearly absent others Common LoonBreeds on clear lakes statewide, a state conservation success story; winters on the seacoast Spruce GrouseRare year-round resident of boreal spruce-fir in the far North Country; a state-listed species Black-backed WoodpeckerRare, local year-round resident of northern spruce-fir, especially recently burned or beetle-killed stands Boreal ChickadeeUncommon, local year-round resident of North Country and high-elevation spruce-fir Rusty BlackbirdUncommon passage migrant, March–April and October–November; a very few breed in North Country bogs

See Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge on the migration map →