CR 631/Tuckahoe Rd., Tuckahoe, NJ
Phone: (609) 628-2103
www.njfishandwildlife.org
NJ Department of Environmental Protection
Turn Left onto Route 9. Travel 0.2 miles and turn Right onto CR 637/Butter Rd.
At end of Butter Rd. (about 1.7 miles), turn
Left onto CR 631/Tuckahoe Rd. After 2.5 miles, the entrance will be on your Right. The office
will be on your Right in 1/2 mile. DIRECTIONS FROM NEAREST HIGHWAY: From the intersection of Route 40 and Route 50 in Mays Landing, continue South on Route 50. After 10.5 miles, turn Left onto Griscom Mill Road. Continue for 0.3 miles to the entrance for Tuckahoe Wildlife Management Area. Map
Open daily from dawn to dusk. Small parking areas available on site. Plenty of dirt roads to explore by foot, by car or on a bicycle.
Tuckahoe WMA is heavily used by hunters from October through December. Visitors should take precautions such as wearing bright colors (other than white) and staying on the main trails.
A Boat Ramp Maintenance Permit or valid hunting or fishing license is required to use the boat ramp at Tuckahoe. Go to
www.njfishandwildlife.com/wmaregs.htm
for further information.
If you walk quietly along the foot trails and search around the bottoms of the white cedar trees, you may find the owl pellets left behind by Long-eared Owl. This regurgitated material contains the fur and bones of the owl’s prey items. Where there is a pellet, look up and you may be lucky enough to see an owl resting in a tree, even during daylight hours.
| | The Tuckahoe WMA features nearly 14,600 acres of salt marsh, fresh water rivers, marshes and impoundments, and Pine Barrens woodland. With such diverse habitats, the WMA attracts a large variety of birds,
mammals, frogs and turtles. The Tuckahoe side of the two-part WMA offers wildlife-viewing along the trails next to the impoundments. In fact, because Tuckahoe is so large and off the beaten path you may wish to join a group field trip sponsored by a local organization such as New Jersey Audubon to learn the lay of the land on your first visit. In any case, you can count on a quiet, serene experience in this vast natural area.
The impoundments may be very active with winter waterfowl moving around in the area. Large groups may be in one place one day, and
in another the next. Tundra Swan are regular migrants known to stay all winter when the ponds are not frozen. Raptors such as Northern Harrier, Red-tailed and Rough-legged Hawks,
and Bald Eagle are regular visitors.
Migratory waterfowl move through, including “dabbling” ducks, such as Northern Shoveler, Widgeon, Northern Pintail, and Blue-winged and Green-winged Teals and some divers, such as mergansers and scaups. Herons and egrets feed in the impoundments spring through fall, and some nest at Tuckahoe. Look for Acadian Flycatcher, Prothonotary, Yellow-throated and Hooded Warblers in wooded areas.
Carefully scan the woods along the entrance road for Pine and Prairie Warblers, as well as other common birds of the Pine Barrens. Osprey and Northern Harrier nest near the impoundments. Many migrant shorebirds such as Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, and various sandpipers and plovers also frequent the impoundments. Viewing can be especially good in late summer when water levels are low and the birds are in concentrated groups.
The expansive wetlands attract large
numbers of migratory waterfowl and other
marsh birds, particularly Black Duck, Northern Pintail and Green-winged Teal. The upland forest habitat is an important staging area for many songbird species. Some years, great masses of Purple Martin and Tree Swallow roost in the phragmites marshes.
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