Important Bird Area.
This area in the upper portion of Red Rock Reservoir is very susceptible to flooding events. It can have some interesting birding or be devoid of activity. You never know until you check. The short drive to the parking lot may have some interesting scrub species.

In the northwest corner of Marion Co. Along Hwy. 14, either two miles south of Monroe (in Jasper Co.), or three miles north of G-28 at Lake Red Rock, take Carpenter St. going west; 6.5 miles west along Carpenter, after passing 72nd Ave. to the north, take 68th Ave. south to the Boxcars boat ramp area along the Des Moines River. (In the Sportsman's Atlas, 68th Ave. is not marked and appears, misleadingly, as a very short spur before Carpenter dead-ends).

In times of receding flood waters, shorebirds may be plentiful and Buff-breasted Sandpiper is a fall target.

The entire area is important as a resting area for large concentrations of migrating waterfowl, gulls, and shorebirds. The area is also critical as a wintering area for large numbers of Bald Eagles. Nesting birds include Bobolink, Cerulean Warbler, Black-billed Cuckoo, Wood Thrush, and in some years Kentucky Warbler.

The Red Rock Dam is about five miles southwest of Pella; the refuge area extends northwest beyond Runnells in Polk County to near Hartford in Warren County.