The Pearl River Waterfowl Refuge lies between the Natchez Trace Parkway and Highway 43 on the north shore of the Ross Barnett Reservoir in Madison County, at the southwestern end of the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area. The management area runs northeast from there between the parkway and the Pearl toward Ratliff Ferry, and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks' 2023 map gives it 6,905 acres. Established in the 1960s, it holds freshwater ponds and marshes, shrub swamp, hardwood flats and pine-hardwood ridges, and it is recognized by the National Audubon Society as an Important Bird Area.
The Jackson Audubon Society counts about 208 species recorded along Pipeline Road, a gravel road that runs beside the Pearl's marshes. Nesting birds include bald eagles, anhingas, great egrets, prothonotary warblers and Mississippi kites. In winter the marshes and open water draw American white pelicans, double-crested cormorants and a variety of ducks, and in the other seasons herons, egrets and ibis work the shallows. Songbirds use the pecan grove that leads to the area's observation tower on Highway 43, about a mile east of the highway's junction with the parkway.
The Pearl River Valley Water Supply District and the state wildlife department manage the area together. The no-hunting refuge at its southwestern end holds an impoundment bordered by mixed pine and hardwoods. Migratory shorebirds come to its mudflats.
Getting there
32.5279, -89.9529
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
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