Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge is one of seven refuges administered by the Savannah Coastal Refuges Complex. Habitats include six man-made freshwater ponds, salts marshes, fields, wetlands, and forests. The Georgia refuge borders Harris Neck Creek, South Newport River, and Swain River.
Nearly 240 bird species have been seen here. In addition to wildlife viewing, visitors can also hike, bike, and fish.
Harris Neck History
Daniel Demetre established Bethany Plantation on the north end of Dickinson’s Neck, later called Harris Neck. Ann Harris married Demetre in 1752. The plantation era on Harris Neck ended with the Civil War, later becoming a community of emancipated African Americans. Plantation land was subdivided into lots for sale in the 1870s, many of which were purchased by members of Harris Neck’s Gullah community.
In the 1940s, the U.S. government established an army airfield on the north end of Harris Neck. It served as a gunnery training facility for World War II fighter pilots. Remnants of the asphalt runways and taxiways can still be seen, especially along the Airfield Perimeter Loop Trail.
Wildlife Drive and Hiking
There is a 4-mile, one-way wildlife drive through the refuge. At the entrance, there were double-crested cormorants, great egrets, and little blue herons in Harris Neck Creek.
Over 20 miles of trails take visitors closer to freshwater ponds and historic sites. Though it was a cloudy and rainy day, we were still able to hike three trails: Bluebill Pond Loop, Goose Pond Loop, and the scenic overlook trail to Thomas Landing.
Bluebill Pond Loop
This easy 1.1-mile trail starts along the shore of Bluebill Pond. We spied American coots, common gallinules, and tricolored herons.
Then the trail heads into a forested section where we heard some leaves shifting before a nose and ears appeared – a nine-banded armadillo! This one was much less skittish than the one at Fort Pulaski.
Finally, the trail wanders between Bluebill Pond and Woody Pond. At Woody Pond, we found an anhinga, belted kingfishers, black-crowned night herons, great egrets, hooded mergansers, snowy egrets, and yellow-bellied sapsuckers. By the road, we found another armadillo who spent so much time with its nose to the ground it looked like a bloodhound with a scent.
Goose Pond Loop
Goose Pond Loop is an easy 1.4-mile trail on the existing airfield taxiway. The initial section splits Goose Pond and Greenhead Pond before connecting with a portion of the Airfield Perimeter Loop. While the route is paved, nature has taken over and there are rough and overgrown areas.
Black vultures, blue jays, downy woodpeckers, eastern phoebes, eastern towhees, northern cardinals, northern mockingbirds, ruby-crowned kinglets, and savannah sparrows sang and moved around us.
We found about 10 armadillos on this hike. It became like finding a tree squirrel, almost commonplace, when earlier in the day I was so excited by a species I hadn’t seen before this road trip.
Thomas Landing
In the early 1800s, most of land owned by the Harris family was acquired by the Thomas family, who established the Peru Plantation. Thomas Landing reaches out to South Newport River.
In addition to the landscape views, there was also a bald eagle in a tree along the riverbank.