Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge
Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge
Knotts Island, NC 27950
Phone:252-429-3100
Web: www.fws.gov/mackayisland
Established: 1960.
Location:Northeast corner of North Carolina on Knotts Island.
Facilities:Visitor contact station, trails, fishing pier (é).
Activities:Boating, canoeing, fishing, hiking, biking, deer hunting.
Special Features:The refuge is strategically located along the Atlantic Flyway, making it an important wintering area for ducks, geese, and tundra swans. At times, flocks of over 12,000 snow geese may be observed on the refuge after their arrival in November.
Habitats: 8,219 acres of freshwater and brackish marsh to upland and lowland eastern pine hardwood forest.
Access: Open from sunrise to sunset; access to most of the refuge is closed from mid-October to mid-March.
Wild life: Ducks, Canada geese, snow geese, herons, egrets, bald eagle, peregrine falcon, muskrat, nutria, river otter, gray and red fox, turtles and snakes, including the cottonmouth.
See other parks in North Carolina.