Friday, June 12
On Friday, June 12, we’re partnering with our friends at the Lower Shore Land Trust for an all-day birding adventure in the Snow Hill area. In the morning, we’ll search for songbirds in the cypress swamps. We’ll break for lunch in Snow Hill, and then we’ll search for shorebirds in the salt marshes of Chincoteague Bay. 20% of the June 12 registration fees will be donated to the Lower Shore Land Trust.
Update (posted 6:00 am on April 30): Registration is open!
Friday, June 12
Cypress to Salt Marsh: Pocomoke River & Chincoteague Bay Birding (DRIVING/HIKING)
Time: 8:00 am – 4:00 pm
Guides: Jared Parks & Jim Rapp
Cost: $55/person
Meeting Location: meet in the parking area near the pavilion at Sturgis Park, located at 200 River Street, Snow Hill, MD 21863. GPS coordinates: 38.177873, -75.395866
Please note: Dress and prepare for hiking on trails that may be wet and muddy. Waterproof boots are recommended. Please prepare for ticks. Be sure to bring insect repellent. For information about preventing tickborne diseases, please click here.
On this tour, we’ll sample the birding hotspots in both the Pocomoke River and Chincoteague Bay watersheds! We’ll meet at 8:00 am at the Sturgis Park pavilion in Snow Hill to check everyone in and review our schedule for the day. Before 8:00 am, we encourage you to grab coffee and breakfast at one of the local eateries. There are restaurants and coffee shops open at 7:00 am within a few blocks of Sturgis Park.
After check-in, we’ll caravan to a warbler hotspot along Mt. Olive Church Road that is managed by The Nature Conservancy. The site features protected upland forest and bald cypress swamps of Nassawango Creek. We typically find more than 10 warbler species here, including Prothonotary, Worm-eating, and Prairie Warblers, American Redstarts, Northern Parulas, and other songbirds that nest in the Pocomoke River watershed.
We’ll then caravan back to Snow Hill for a short hike on the Summerfield Trails before lunch. This new trail system in the Pocomoke State Forest opened in 2024, and will eventually connect the town to Pocomoke River State Park at Shad Landing.
We’ll return to Sturgis Park at 11:30 am for a brief stop at the Lower Shore Land Trust office. We encourage you to enjoy lunch in Snow Hill, or pack a lunch and dine riverside under the Sturgis Park pavilion.
At 1:00 pm, we’ll depart Snow Hill and caravan east towards the forests and salt marshes of Chincoteague Bay. The Lower Shore Land Trust works with property owners in the area to conserve and restore land. We’ll go birding at a private property near Chincoteague Bay, and we’ll stop by Taylor Landing to search for birds in the salt marsh and on the water. We’ll return to Snow Hill by 4:00 pm.
Estimated total hiking for the day is between 2 to 3 miles on asphalt roads and level trails. We will not be hiking through the muddy salt marsh. We’ll do our best to stay on trails that will be dry, but some trails may be wet and muddy if it has rained recently.
Click on the Google Map for our meeting location and field trip sites:
Please note:
- No cancellations are accepted after June 1, 2026. For a further explanation of our refund policy, please click here.
- Trips will go rain or shine, unless torrential rains prevent us from viewing wildlife.
- If the trip is canceled due to dangerous conditions, we will notify you via email. Please note that the email will be sent to all participants BCC, so you may need to check your email spam folder. A full refund will be provided within 15 days.