Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge

Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge For the official source of information about the Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge head to: www.fws.gov/refuge/ohio_river_islands/
(1)

The Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge is one of more than 550 refuges and other units in the National Wildlife Refuge System, the world's largest and most diverse network of lands and waters devoted specifically to wildlife. Refuges are places where wildlife comes first! The Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge began with the purchase of eight islands in the Ohio River by the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service in 1990. Today, the refuge consists of 22 islands scattered along 362 miles of river and across 3 states. The refuge offers hunting, fishing, wildlife observation, photography, environmental education and interpretation for visitors. In 2007 a visitor contact station was opened in Williamstown, West Virginia. The visitor station features self guided exhibits (including a 1000 gallon aquarium containing native Ohio River fish), hiking trails, fishing pier, and a butterfly garden. The refuge's Middle Island in St. Mary's, West Virginia offers an auto tour, fishing access and hiking trails. Visitors are welcome on the refuge!

If you don't like spiders, well -- try to think of this as a cute, fuzzy, intelligent sort of creature ... Just look int...
06/21/2026

If you don't like spiders, well -- try to think of this as a cute, fuzzy, intelligent sort of creature ... Just look into those giant, vulnerable eyes! This is the Giant Woodland Wolf Spider. When it's crossing the road, this behemoth is hard to miss, roughly the same size as a small mouse. That's especially true when it is burdened by all its young (See? Very family-oriented. Adorable!). It can carry up to around 100 at a time, and will do so for around two weeks until the young are able to survive on their own. Then they set out into the world, perhaps to find a home in a patch of woods near you!

Giant Woodland Wolf Spider (at our Belleville easement), photo by Michael Schramm/USFWS

Though our new ephemeral wetland will never contain fish (because it's ephemeral, of course!), it nonetheless attracts t...
06/18/2026

Though our new ephemeral wetland will never contain fish (because it's ephemeral, of course!), it nonetheless attracts the attention of the occasional, passing heron, who after all will eat more than just fish. But does this one look a bit puffed out and spikey to you? That's because it caught the attention of the resident red-winged blackbirds, who promptly began to dive-bomb the heron. Just like a scared house cat, the heron will send its feathers on edge to look larger and more menacing. The strategy had no effect on the blackbirds, and the heron soon continued on its way ...

Great Blue Heron, photo by Michael Schramm/USFWS

There are the birds you see and there are the birds you hear. Red-eyed Vireos are abundant in any patch of forest east o...
06/15/2026

There are the birds you see and there are the birds you hear. Red-eyed Vireos are abundant in any patch of forest east of the Mississippi River, but if you are not a birder, you may never have even noticed them. They tend to pass their time high in the canopy, up out of view. But if you learn their song, you will discover how common they are. They sing all day long, even in the afternoon, repeating their short song over and over and over. It's great to tune in, but be warned: once you tune in, you can't really tune it out!

Red-eyed Vireo, photo by Michael Schramm/USFWS

The milkw**d family of plants includes butterfly w**d, currently coming into bloom with its glowingly orange flowers. Mo...
06/12/2026

The milkw**d family of plants includes butterfly w**d, currently coming into bloom with its glowingly orange flowers. Monarch Butterflies famously depend on milkw**d, but the plant is excellent for a whole variety of insects, including a full spectrum of butterflies such as this Great Spangled Fritillary. Why do they like this plant so much? Part of it is that they produce a particularly copious amounts of sweet nectar, which is advertised by the bright flowers, but it is also built into the structure of the flower itself: the flat clusters of flowers are a perfect landing pad. It calls to the butterflies, "Come on in!"

Great Spangled Fritillary, photo by Michael Schramm/USFWS

It takes about two weeks for a Baltimore Oriole to carefully weave her nest, which resembles a large sock hanging from a...
06/08/2026

It takes about two weeks for a Baltimore Oriole to carefully weave her nest, which resembles a large sock hanging from a tree branch. We provide twine fibers at the visitor center, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to all the various materials used for a nest, which often include plant fibers and grasses, animal hair, bits of burlap sacks and string and anything else the bird can find. In the end, a single nest can require some 10,000 stitches, all done only with the bird's beak.

Baltimore Oriole and nest viewed from the new Wetland Trail, photo by Michael Schramm/USFWS

In the coming weeks, as the first brood of chicks fledge, you may see awkward fledglings loudly begging for food from th...
06/05/2026

In the coming weeks, as the first brood of chicks fledge, you may see awkward fledglings loudly begging for food from their doting parents. Sometimes you will see a fledgling that is conspicuously enormous compared to its parent. This is almost certainly a Brown-headed Cowbird, the product of nest parasitism. Adult cowbirds lay their eggs in other birds' nests, never raising their own young. They often target tiny birds like warblers that have no defense. The cowbird egg hatches first, and the large chick smothers or outcompetes the warbler chicks. Even after fledging, the cowbird chick is so voracious and so obnoxious in its begging that they run the adult host bird ragged. It's distressful to watch, which is why Cowbirds are generally despised by local birders.

Brown-headed Cowbird, photo by Michael Schramm/USFWS

The Prairie Warbler isn't found on a prairie at all, but rather they prefer scrublands and second-growth forest. For spe...
06/01/2026

The Prairie Warbler isn't found on a prairie at all, but rather they prefer scrublands and second-growth forest. For species in this category, it can be difficult to gauge how bird populations are doing. As European settlers cut down old growth forests, scrubland birds thrived, suddenly gifted an enormous amount of new habitat. Now that forests are recovering and scrublands are becoming less common, populations are declining. But are they declining too much? Or are they merely returning to what they were in pre-colonial times? How has their range changed over time? Ornithologists struggle to find ways to answer these questions. In the meantime, Prairie Warblers are undeniably in decline, making any encounter a special treat.

Prairie Warbler, photo by Michael Schramm/USFWS

No warbler is easy to find, exactly, but some warblers are especially frustrating, either because they are uncommon or b...
05/28/2026

No warbler is easy to find, exactly, but some warblers are especially frustrating, either because they are uncommon or because they are reclusive. The Worm-eating Warbler is both, and has buffy, camouflaged plumage to boot. They don't actually eat worms, as the name erroneously implies, but they like to forage on the forest floor -- deep in large tracts of forest, typically in narrow ravines or on steep slopes (hard to find!). They also nest directly on the forest floor, hidden in thickets. Given all this time spent vulnerable on the ground, their camouflaged plumage makes sense. But, were it not for their distinctive, trilling song, they would be almost impossible to find!

Worm-eating Warbler, photo by Michael Schramm/USFWS

Few local species are as non-descript as the Eastern Warbling Vireo. Despite being almost uniformly light gray, they hav...
05/25/2026

Few local species are as non-descript as the Eastern Warbling Vireo. Despite being almost uniformly light gray, they have many bird-enthusiast admirers, largely on account of their loud, consistent, distinctive song. They're the bird that says, "If I could see it, I would seize it, and I would squeeze it 'til it squirts!"

Eastern Warbling Vireo, photo by Michael Schramm/USFWS

Address

3982 Waverly Road
Williamstown, WV
26187

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Saturday 8:30am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+13043752923

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share