Join us for our fifth annual Moth Night, part of the citizen-science project called National Moth Week, and organized by Margaret Roach’s A Way to Garden and the Friends of Taconic State Park, in Copake Falls, New York. BYO picnic supper if you please–we’ll provide dessert treats–to enjoy while you learn some Moth 101 from top experts, then experience nature after dark with them and just have fun. Suitable for all ages, and families welcome. Wait till you see what we discover together at moth-attracting blacklight “stations” set up on park trails.

Brigette Zacharczenko, a PhD UConn-Storrs entomologist, and Dylan Cipkowski, who has been surveying the moths of Columbia County, as part of his field work with nearby Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program, will be our guides.

This year’s Moth Night starts at 7:30 at the Park’s nature center, accessed through the main headquarters gate at 253 State Route 344, Copake Falls; the attendant will direct you to the parking lot farther on.

We’ll get started with a quick Moth 101, and have live specimens to examine from overnight light “traps” set the evening before to examine before dark.

At nightfall we head into the woods along a trail, where we will have set up special blacklight stations to lure and view the night’s visitors. There will also be light stations set up by the meeting area as well, very easily accessible. Picnic tables will be set up, so BYO supper and come a bit earlier. Delicious treats baked by David Wurth of CrossRoads Food Shop in Hillsdale will be provided, courtesy of A Way to Garden.