Discover
Birding and Wildlife on the Rackliffe House Nature Trails
It’s a good idea to bring a pair of binoculars when you visit Rackliffe House. Visitors will discover a beautiful nature trail teeming with wildlife that connects Rackliffe House to the Assateague Island Visitor Center and a coastal forest located on Assateague State Park’s mainland campus.
One half-mile of the nature trail will lead you through a successional forest of young Loblolly Pines and Bayberry along Sinepuxent Bay. During a spring and early summer hike, you’ll hear the sounds of gulls, terns, and Ospreys over the bay, and Indigo Buntings singing from the branches. In the fall and winter, waterfowl take over the bay, and Yellow-rumped Warblers can be seen flitting back and forth between the open path and the shelter of the trees.
Throughout the year, Rackliffe’s open lawn is frequented by White-tailed Deer, Eastern Cottontails, and Wild Turkeys. If you’re hiking to Rackliffe House from the trail, approach the lawn quietly to catch a glimpse of the deer, turkey, and rabbits before they seek cover in the trees.
The trail from Rackliffe House through the State Park runs along a mature hardwood forest that is home to woodpeckers and owls year-round, and migrant songbirds in the spring and summer.
If you want to review a list of the bird species tallied along the Rackliffe House nature trails, check out the eBird.org HotSpot.
