Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge Waterfowl Hunt Permits

The Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge waterfowl hunt covers several separate locations across the refuge and the tidal country around it, on Fish and Wildlife Service land. A refuge map names them: Goose Dam, Blackwater River, Beaverdam Creek, Barren Island, Bishops Head, Spring Island, Marshyhope Creek and the Nanticoke River, spread between the open bay on the west and the farm-and-woodland interior to the east. Aerial imagery of the individual locations shows what each one is. Beaverdam Creek and the Blackwater River are broad brown tidal marshes cut by winding channels, divided into west, central and east units. Barren Island and Spring Island are low, largely bare islands set in shallow green water, worked by the tide into thin spits and shoals. Marshyhope Creek runs as a dark wooded corridor between cleared fields. Ground photographs show mallards on the water among flooded stubble and dry standing reeds, drakes and hens together at the marsh edge.