Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge

Swan Quarter, NC U.S.A.

Located in eastern North Carolina in Hyde County, the Mattamuskeet refuge was established in 1934 and covers 50,000 acres of water, marsh and timberlands.

Lake Matamuskeet, the largest natural lake in North Carolina, is shallow, averaging only two feet in depth. It is 18 miles long, 5 to 6 miles wide and covers about 40,000 acres.

Mattamuskeet is in the middle of the Atlantic Flyway and provides a valuable wintering area for waterfowl. Canada geese, snow geese, tundra swans and 22 species of ducks winter on the refuge.

Refuge staff offer guided wildlife tours each year during the Swan Days Festival, held the first weekend in December.

Thousands of tundra swans winter at the Mattamuskeet refuge.