We have two nifty, free, family-friendly nature events at DeKorte Park in the next 10 days.

First up is Moth Night, next Monday from 8:30 to 11 p.m. The amazing folks from National Moth week will be here to give a short talk about moths and set up their big lights to attract the local night-flyers.  A couple of posts about last year’s first-ever Moth Night are here and here.

Next up is our fourth annual Butterfly Day, on Sunday, July 28, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It features short butterfly walks, displays and a scavenger hunt for kids (the kids do the scavenging), talks about the butterflies of DeKorte, hourly door prizes and a butterfly costume contest for kids 12 and under. All with the help from the folks at Bergen County Audubon Society and the North Jersey chapter of the North American Butterfly Association. Posts about previous Butterfly Days are here and here.

Listings for Moth Night and Butterfly Day follow. Continue reading →

Just in time for Moth Night, an NJMC colleague brought in a Tobacco Hornworm for everyone to admire. The hornworm had been devouring his tomato plants. (It is not a nice caterpillar.)

This is why it is called a hornworm. The horn is located at the worm’s aft.

With a little research, we discovered that the hornworm, nicknamed “Joey” by a fellow staffer, could someday turn into an awesome Tobacco Hawkmoth.

We are now trying to keep Joey alive so he can live out his dream of being a hawkmoth or, failing that, at least hanging around until Moth Night, where he is scheduled to appear.

(Moth Night is from 8:30 to 11 p.m. next Monday night, July 22, and features bright lights and folks from National Moth Week! It’s free and family-friendly.)

We are posting a photo of a Tobacco Hawkmoth, courtesy of bugguide.net, below. A link to more info on the Tobacco Hornworm is here. (Thank you, Sue Lewicki of the MEC, for your help!)

Continue reading →

Because we had to reschedule our “Birding By Boat” with the Bergen County Audubon Society, we now have a lot more room for folks who want to to participate. It is open to all, and a lot of fun.

The boat ride along the Hackensack River and its marshes is two hours long and costs just a $15 donation. The shorebird migration is on, and we should see lost of nifty birds.

Posts from previous years on this annual event — including lists of birds seen are here  (August 2012), here (July 2012) and here.

Full information on “Birding By Boat” and how to register follow. Continue reading →

This guy — photographed recently by Regina Geoghan in Jill’s Garden– is one of our favorites. And he’s a tricky one, in honor of our upcoming Moth Night on Monday, July 22, and Butterfly Day on Sunday, July 28.   Who is he? Why, he is an eight-spotted Forester Moth.

More on 8-Spotted Forester Moths here.