Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge

The Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge is one of the premier wildlife viewing sites on the Delmarva Peninsula and represents some of the last unspoiled barrier island/coastal marsh habitats remaining on the Atlantic coast. The 1200-acre refuge provides access to expanses of salt marsh, grasslands, loblolly pine forests, bayberry thickets, barrier islands, and freshwater and brackish ponds. It is also a popular site for observing large numbers of migrating raptors and migrant neotropicals because the area is a critical staging zone along the Atlantic Flyway. American Kestrel, Osprey, Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned hawks, Merlin, and Peregrine Falcon are some of the birds that can be seen here during fall raptor migration. Piping Plover and Least Tern occasionally turn up, and Wilson’s Plovers nest on the nearby barrier islands, as do the threatened loggerhead sea turtles.