c. Virginia Friere

Play and Go in Prospect Park!

July 23, 2020

There is a new way to have fun in Prospect Park this summer! Join Prospect Park Alliance at locations around the park and surrounding neighborhoods as we bring our favorite activities from the Prospect Park Audubon Center and Lefferts Historic House on the road in easy-to-borrow play and go kits.

The  Pop-Up Lefferts Play and Go Kit  includes historic games and toys, including a DIY kits to make a nine-man morris game board and Mamantuhwin, a Native American (Lenape) dice game, which you can take home with you. There is also a wooden egg and spoon and potato sacks for races with your friends and family. A small library of children’s books can also be borrowed along with your kit on a first-come first-served basis. Learn more about dates and locations.

Pop-Up Audubon Play and Go Kits features a range of fun nature activities and games, as well as a birdwatching checklist with binoculars, and much more. Families and children can enjoy nature on their own as they explore and learn more about the park. Learn more about dates and locations.

Kits can be borrowed for up to 45 minutes, and will be sanitized between sessions. 

Pop-Up Audubon is made possible through the generous support of Con Edison.

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Pop-Up Lefferts is supported NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

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Stavros Niarchos Foundation Short

Fall Foliage Walk

October 19, 2016

For a true taste of autumn in New York, there are few places more spectacular than Prospect Park. Daily visitors will notice the transformation throughout the Park as the canopies turn from lush green to brilliant amber and gold. In preparation for the changing season, we’ve suggested some of our favorite routes through Prospect Park to check out the stunning fall foliage.

Peninsula to Lookout Hill 
While it’s difficult to pinpoint when and where the leaves will begin to change, the horse chestnuts on the Peninsula are typically the first to hint at the start of the season. The woodland paths will guide you through a variety of species, providing some of the most scenic lakeside views in the Park. After winding around the Lake, cross Wellhouse Drive to Lookout Hill, the Park’s highest point, where you will find raspberry bushes with their leaves turning red as well as tulip trees changing to yellow.

Lullwater and Nethermead
Starting at Lullwater Bridge, follow the shoreline toward the Nethermead, where you’ll find some of the earliest signs of the autumnal transition. The watercourse hosts tall maples and London Plane trees that have already begun to change color and drop their leaves.

Ravine to Long Meadow
Walk through the Nethermead Arches and up the slope to the woodland Ravine.  While it might be difficult to see the tops of the towering oak trees, the fruity shrubs, the understory trees will begin to show signs that the fall has arrived.

Grand Army Plaza to Meadowport Arch
One of the most intimate places in Prospect Park is a small oval path just inside its northernmost entrance. Enter the Park at Grand Army Plaza near Prospect Park West, and head toward the Meadowport Arch. You’ll come to a gingko, Nyssa and Japanese Maple. If you catch these trees at the right time, you’ll find them cascading with color from the top down.  From there, the trees begin to change along the Long Meadow like a chain reaction.

To learn more about autumn in Prospect Park, visit both Pop-Up Audubon locations this month, which will feature educational hikes and fun fall foliage activities.

Enjoy Fall Migration in Prospect Park

September 19, 2016

With more than 250 species of birds spotted in Prospect Park each year, bird watching is one of the more tranquil ways to enjoy the Park, and this month is the start of the peak season for fall migration. The Park’s location along the Atlantic Flyway led to its destination as an Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society, and the creation of the Prospect Park Audubon Center, where the Prospect Park Alliance offers bird watching activities throughout the year, including walks led by the Brooklyn Bird Club.

With a pair of binoculars, a bird guide and an adventurous spirit, take a stroll through Prospect Park and try to spot the wide variety of southbound birds, such as the aptly named Yellow-Rumped Warbler (pictured above), which begins to migrate through Prospect Park in mid-September. Download the new Prospect Park App to take our bird watching challenge and see how many birds you can spot throughout the Park.

Alliance Supervising Educator Steven Wong, who organizes activities at the Audubon Center, recommends some of the top spots in the Park for bird watching, including Lookout Hill, the Peninsula, the Ravine and the Lake, and the Alliance visits many of these areas during its free bird watching walks.

“We offer nature walks on Thursdays and Fridays at the Audubon Center until the end of December,” said Wong. “We also offer an introduction to bird watching through out Pop-Up Audubon program, which runs on the weekends until the end of October, and one of themes this month is Radical Raptors. All of our programs are free and we provide binoculars and bird guides.”

Visit the Prospect Park Alliance bird watching page for the latest events, and also a map with top birding locations.

Elizabeth Keegin Colley

7 Springtime Favorites

March 15, 2016

For Brooklynites, the hub of spring is Prospect Park – where the flora blooms brightest, the grass grows greenest, and sunshine is most inviting! Check out this list of our top seven spring pastimes.

Opening Day: On Saturday, April 2, the Prospect Park Alliance rings in the arrival of spring and with it the return of some of our most popular programs and activities. First, join the Alliance and the Prospect Park Baseball Association on Saturday morning, when thousands of youth players parade through Park Slope and celebrate the opening pitch at a newly restored field on the Long Meadow. Then join us for a variety of family-friendly fun as the Alliance kicks off its seasonal programming at the Audubon Center and Lefferts Historic House. 

Smorgasburg: What could possibly make a lazy Sunday morning in Prospect Park better? A delicious picnic provided by highly touted food purveyors. Beginning Sunday, April 3, Smorgasburg returns to Breeze Hill for a full season of showcasing the borough’s finest food in Brooklyn’s most beautiful outdoor setting. So saunter over to the Park’s southeast side, grab a bite from one of the nearly 100 vendors, and then enjoy a sunny Sunday stroll through nature.

Party for the Park: On Thursday, May 12, join the Prospect Park Alliance at the Boathouse for a one-of-a-kind celebration of the Park and the return of warmer weather. If drinks and savory bites from locally renowned establishments, live music, and dancing under the stars constitute your idea of a good time, you just might want to attend. Plus, all proceeds benefit the Alliance, and support the work we do to keep Prospect Park beautiful. Get your tickets today!

Pop-Up Audubon: Pop-Up Audubon makes its triumphant return to the Park on Saturday, April 7, and continues to pop up in various locations across the Park through October, providing fun and informative nature education programming to youth of all ages. Come check out Pop-Up Audubon and learn a bit more about Prospect Park’s flora and fauna! Want to explore the Park further on your own? Later this spring, stay tuned for news about the Alliance’s first app, which will not only help you better explore the Park, but include fun challenges and games that increase your knowledge of Park nature and history.

Spring Blooms: As April turns to May, and May to June, the entire Park will gradually blossom into a floral display of vibrant colors. Check out our bloom guide to make the most of this season, and if you enjoy photography, do not forget to post to Instagram with #ProspectPark to be in the running for our Photo of the Week.

LeFrak Center at Lakeside: On April 9, the LeFrak Center at Lakeside officially kicks off its roller skating season. Stay tuned for some of the most popular seasonal events, including roller derbies and Lola’s Dreamland Disco. If biking is more your speed, enjoy a loop around the lower end of the Park on one of the Center’s surreys, coupes and choppers!

BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival: Celebrate Brooklyn!, one of the city’s premier performing arts festivals, which draws crowds to the Bandshell to enjoy an eclectic lineup of world-class performers, kicks off June 8 with a free performance by Sharon and the Dap-Kings. The full line up of this not-to-miss celebration will be announced later this spring, but you can already get tickets for its benefit concerts, which include Tame Impala (June 14, 15), Beirut (August 2), and more. Check out our Celebrate Brooklyn! page for the latest news.

 

Elizabeth Keegin Colley

Explore Fall Migration

September 17, 2015

Grab your binoculars and tread quietly. Warblers and other songbirds are making their annual migratory journey through Prospect Park. Located along the Atlantic Flyway, Prospect Park is an important destination for birdwatching, and this month is a peak time for the fall migration as birds head to warmer climes.  

Look for rare and familiar species, such as the American Redstart and Warbling Vireo, searching for insects on tree trunks in the Park’s woodland Ravine. Keep your ears open because these delightful creatures will likely be heard before they are seen. For those with sharp eyes, majestic raptors, such as Red-tailed Hawks, can be spotted soaring above the Long Meadow, while Osprey circle the Lake in search for food. Later in the season, look for other waterfowl in the Park, including the American Coot and the Northern Shoveler with its colorful body and black spoon-shaped bill.

At the Prospect Park Audubon Center, the Prospect Park Alliance and Brooklyn Bird Club offer a number of ways to enjoy this ultimate birding season, including Early Morning Bird Walks, Radical Raptor activities at Pop-Up Audubon, and the Bird Nerd Game Hour at the Audubon Center.

Check out our calendar for all birdwatching events.

c. Virginia Freire

PPA Profiles: Averill Wickland

July 20, 2015

Education program coordinator Averill Wickland is passionate about teaching environmental education to children and families. He joined the Prospect Park Alliance last year to help lead the development of expanded nature education programs at the Prospect Park Audubon Center.

Following the success of Pop-Up Audubon, a mobile nature education program that takes place in a different area of the Park each month with seasonal themes, the Alliance received generous funding from the Brooke Astor Fund for New York City Education to develop a second Pop-Up Audubon program focused on the Park’s aquatic habitats, as well as Discovery Kits that families can borrow to explore the Park. The new programs launched in April and have been a big success, with more than 400 visitors to the second Pop-Up Audubon program alone each weekend.

“It’s great to be able to share my interest in nature in Prospect Park,” Averill explained. “I really love to hear what the families who visit Pop-Up Audubon have to share as well. Some of them have been coming to the Park longer than I’ve been alive.”

Averill grew up in a small town in Vermont, just outside of Middlebury. After graduating from Wesleyan University, he joined the Peace Corps. He was assigned to a forestry position, where he helped set up orchards in Malawi, Africa, and became interested in teaching. Six years ago, Averill moved to New York City where he worked as an educator at the Science Barge in Yonkers as a field studies coordinator at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden before joining the Alliance.

The Alliance’s nature education programs are designed to engage children from diverse backgrounds, and deliver a message of conservation, stewardship and exploration of the Park. This includes one of the Park’s most popular summer activities, catch-and-release fishing. Funded for many years by Macy’s, this favorite Park pastime began as a fishing contest, but has since evolved into a more in-depth program that teaches children about aquatic ecology. Through funding from the Astor Fund, this year the Alliance has doubled the program with two locations each weekend in the Park.

“Kids are always surprised to learn that there are actually a lot of fish in the Lake,” Averill observed. “Being in the city, people do not often think about wildlife, but we have sunfish, blue gills, pumpkin seed and largemouth bass. When a child lands those occasional largemouth bass, it’s a really exciting moment.”

Learn more about Pop-Up Audubon, and sign up for our newsletter to learn about the latest upcoming Audubon events and activities, including a Family Fishing Night on July 30.

c. Virginia Freire

Audubon Takes Flight

April 14, 2015

From Nature Play to Bird Nerds Game Hour, this spring the Prospect Park Alliance is offering a slate of new and expanded free nature programs. Starting Saturday, April 18, the Alliance will open the Audubon Center at the historic Boathouse for weekend activities, add a second tent to its popular Pop-Up Audubon program, and launch Discovery Packs, ready-to-go kits filled with activities for families.

“The Alliance offers more than 800 programs serving 75,000 visitors each year throughout the Park, including the Audubon Center,” said Alliance President Sue Donoghue. “Providing families from neighborhoods across Brooklyn – and all over the city – with fun, creative ways to explore and learn about the Park’s natural areas and wildlife is an important part of our mission.”

The Prospect Park Audubon Center was established in 2002 through an innovative partnership between the Prospect Park Alliance and Audubon New York as the first Audubon Center in an urban park. Families are able to directly engage with nature through fun, play-based activities such as bird watching, catch-and-release fishing and citizen science projects. The expanded programming reflects both the popularity of Audubon activities with visitors, as well as the Alliance’s focus on increasing access to Park amenities for surrounding communities. 

Every Saturday and Sunday, the Alliance will offer family-friendly nature programming from 10 am until 1 pm at the Boathouse, such as Nature Play, an innovative game-centered approach to connecting kids with the great outdoors, and Blooming Naturalists, which introduces families to the Park’s vast variety of birds. The Alliance’s popular Pop-Up Audubon program, which launched in 2013 and occurs at locations around the Park, will double the fun with a second tent that explores the Park’s aquatic habitats.

In addition, Discovery Packs will be available at the Audubon Center and new Pop-Up Audubon tent that families can borrow to explore the Park. Similar to Pop-Up Audubon, the Discovery Packs will feature a new theme each month. In April, participants will play Habitat Bingo, searching for specific birds then designing nests. 

Check out the full schedule of programs.

Elizabeth Keegin Colley

8 Things to Enjoy this Spring

March 16, 2015

From family hikes with expert naturalists to performances by chart-topping entertainers, Prospect Park has you covered this spring. We’ve compiled our top eight concerts, programs and events not to miss this season. What are you looking forward to this spring? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with #ProspectParkSpring

1. Spring Break

You don’t have to go to the beach to have fun during this annual school break. Join the Alliance at some of your favorite Park destinations, which will have special programming throughout the week. Take a first spin of the season on the Park’s 1912 Carousel, enjoy nature programs at the Audubon Center, plant spring sprouts at the Lefferts Historic House and enjoy the start of the rollerskating season at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside.

2. Opening Day

Join us April 11 for the Alliance’s annual Opening Day celebration with the Prospect Park Baseball Association. Thousands of players march up Seventh Avenue accompanied by a marching band and other special guests to the Bandshell for the ceremonial first pitch of the season. Play ball!

3. Pop-up Audubon

On April 16, the Prospect Park Alliance introduces twice the Pop-Up Audubon fun with a second tent that explores the aquatic habitats of Prospect Park as well as Discovery Packs, ready-to-go kits filled with fun nature activities for families to explore the Park. April’s theme, Animal Clues, will investigate the birds and wildlife that make their home in the Park near water.

4. Party for the Park

Help support the Park you love on May 14 at the second annual Party for the Park, an unforgettable night of dancing, cocktails and small bites from some of Brooklyn’s favorite chefs and mixologists.

5. Celebrate Brooklyn!

Now in its 37th season, Celebrate Brooklyn! will rock the Bandshell starting June 3 with a free performance by the Queen of Funk, Chaka Khan. Other favorites in this year’s line up are Willie Nelson, Interpol and more. Check our website soon for the full calendar.

6. Lola Star’s Dreamland Disco 

Lola Star’s Dreamland Disco will return to the LeFrak Center at Lakeside for another season of weekly themed rollerskating dance parties featuring your favorite hits from the 1970s and ‘80s. 

7. New York Philharmonic

There are few experiences more peaceful than listening to the sounds of the New York Philharmonic as you’re stretched out on a blanket in the Long Meadow. Help celebrate the 50th anniversary of Concerts in the Park at this annual event, taking place this year on June 19. Members at the Arborist level and above will receive special access. Become a member today. 

8. Pop Up Dinner Brooklyn

Keep an eye out for the announcement of the second annual Pop-Up Dinner Brooklyn, an evening where thousands of Park lovers, dressed in white, picnic under the stars at secret location in Prospect Park.  See photos from last years’s event. Members will receive early access to presale tickets. Become a member today. 

 
c. Martin Seck

Nature Playtime!

November 20, 2014

This fall, the Prospect Park Alliance has partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Prospect Park Zoo and Tinkergarten to offer families a range of activities that explore nature in Prospect Park through creative play. Funded through a grant from the Walt Disney Conservation Fund, Nature Playtime! launched this month with weekly programs at the Zoo, as well as special Pop-Up Audubon sessions that recently took place at the Zucker Natural Exploration Area.

Nature Playtime! includes nature-inspired art activities, insect observation, and play with snow, leaves and dirt, among other activities that foster an appreciation of the natural world. The program also includes activity cards that families can use independently in the Park. The first Nature Playtime! card focuses on activities perfect for the last stage of fall foliage. Other cards will be available monthly on our Nature Programs page.

Check out our calendar to learn more about upcoming Nature Playtime! sessions at the Zoo, which will occur every Sunday through April from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm.

 
Martin Seck

Enjoy Fall Foliage in Prospect Park

November 1, 2014

For a true taste of autumn in New York, there are few places more spectacular that Prospect Park. Daily visitors will notice the transformation throughout the Park as the canopies turn from lush green to brilliant amber and gold. In preparation for the changing season, we’ve suggested some of our favorite routes through Prospect Park to check out the stunning fall foliage.

Peninsula to Lookout Hill
While it’s difficult to pinpoint when and where the leaves will begin to change, the horse chestnuts on the Peninsula are typically the first to hint at the start of the season. The woodland paths will guide you through a variety of species, providing some of the most scenic lakeside views in the Park. After winding around the Lake, cross Wellhouse Drive to Lookout Hill, the Park’s highest point, where you will find raspberry bushes with leaves turning red as well as yellow-leaf tulip trees.

Lullwater and Nethermead
Starting at Lullwater Bridge, follow the shoreline toward the Nethermead, where you’ll find some of the earliest signs of the autumnal transition. The watercourse hosts tall maples and London Plane trees that have already begun to change color and drop their leaves.

Ravine to Long Meadow
Walk through the Nethermead Arches and up the slope to the woodland Ravine.  While it might be difficult to see the tops of the towering oak trees, shrubs like viburnum and serviceberry in the understory will begin to show signs that the fall has arrived.

Grand Army Plaza to Meadowport Arch
One of the most intimate places in Prospect Park is a small oval path just inside its northernmost entrance. Enter the Park at Grand Army Plaza near Prospect Park West, and head toward the Meadowport Arch. You’ll come to a gingko, Nyssa and Japanese Maple. If you catch these trees at the right time, you’ll find them cascading with color from the top down.  From there, the trees begin to change along the Long Meadow like a chain reaction.