11 Hardscrabble Road
PO Box 693
Bernardsville, NJ 07924
(908) 766-5787
E-mail: scherman-hoffman@njaudubon.org

HOURS: Tuesday to Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, noon to 5:00 p.m. / Closed Mondays
CLOSINGS: Wednesday, December 24; Thursday, December 25; Thursday, January 1;
      and Tuesday, February 24.

Scherman-Hoffman Information Page

EVERY DAY AT SCHERMAN-HOFFMAN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

Office is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5:00 p.m. Trails are open seven days, dawn to 5:00 p.m. (park in the Scherman Lot if visiting Mondays or before 9:00 a.m. other days).
VISIT the Hoffman Center for Conservation and Environmental Education.
SHOP our nature store. We are the area’s best source for binoculars, spotting scopes, bird seed, feeders, field guides, natural history books, and nature gifts.
WATCH our state-of-the-art feeding station.
HIKE our three miles of trails that meander through forest and fields and along the headwaters of the Passaic River. The sanctuary is contiguous to Morristown National Historic Park and the Cross Estate.
LEARN from our educational materials, exhibits, and expert naturalists. In addition to the programs and field trips listed below, we offer group programs and tours for schools, scouts, clubs, and other organizations by reservation at least 2 weeks ahead. We also offer a wide variety of lectures and slide programs for club meetings and special events. Please call for more information and the fee schedule for these programs.

Program Registration Information: Program registration information: Checks should be made payable to NJAS and sent to P.O. Box 693, Bernardsville, NJ 07924, or brought to the Hoffman Nature Center during open hours. Indicate which program(s) you are registering for, and please be sure to include your name, address, and phone number in case we need to contact you. It is also possible to register by phoning us during office hours; please have your credit card ready. Prepaid registration ensures a place and is required for all trips. Walk-ins are possible for in-house programs at the Hoffman Nature Center if not full. No refunds except in case of cancellation by us. No cancellation for bad weather unless specifically stated.

Tips and rules for all field trips: We target the best sites for natural history at this season and invite birders and naturalists at all levels. Trips go in any weather. See the individual trip descriptions for hoped-for highlights. Preregistration is required so that we can notify participants of last-minute changes in time or meeting place. Trips begin at the site promptly at the specified time and normally travel by car caravan to other nearby locations.

For directions Click Here, or directions can be mailed on request. Bring lunch, water, binoculars, sunscreen, extra layers of clothes, and wear shoes that can get a little muddy. Leaders will have scopes; feel free to bring your own. Focused children accompanied by an adult are invited.

Click Here for more tips on how to prepare for and enjoy field trips.

Whether you register for programs by mail or phone, please be sure to provide the following information: Your name, address, phone, and e-mail; dates and titles of program(s) you are registering for; name and phone of an emergency contact; and whether you will get instructions from the Web site or will need them mailed.

PROGRAMS AT THE HOFFMAN CENTER

NATIVE PLANT SALE
Mark your calendar:
Saturday, June 6
(rain date Sunday, June 7)
Plant list will be posted by March 1.

BIRD SEED SALE PICKUP AND
BIRD FEEDER WORKSHOP
Saturday, December 6
Saturday, February 7
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Preordered birdseed can be picked up at the Hoffman Center for Conservation and Environmental Education (not the Scherman parking lot). We usually have a few extra bags of birdseed available for over-the-counter sales.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
WORKSHOP I With Phil Witt
Saturday, December 6
10:00 a.m. to noon
Workshop I will review the basics of nature photography. Participants will learn what equipment can be used to achieve different effects. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a working knowledge of lenses and camera bodies (mostly digital single lens reflex bodies), megapixels, shutter speeds, f-stops, focal lengths, apertures, exposure histograms, and depth of field and how all of these can be used to take good nature photographs. Beyond equipment, the workshop will begin to cover the principles of composition and digital editing. Although the focus will be on nature photography, many of the same principles and equipment needs apply to other kinds of photography as well.
Cost: $8 members, $15 nonmembers (can be applied to membership).

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
WORKSHOP II With Phil Witt
Saturday, December 13
10:00 a.m. to noon
Workshop II will cover composition and digital editing more intensively. Although the workshop will demonstrate digital editing using PhotoShop, the majority of the editing techniques can be used in other digital editing programs. The workshop will be organized around three nature photography principles – light, composition, and movement. All composition and editing techniques, from the initial lens choice to the image capture technique to PhotoShop editing, will be geared towards achieving an image that captures those three elements well. Although we will stress getting the best image capture initially, sometimes Mother Nature needs a little help in the digital darkroom, so we will cover basic digital editing methods that can improve the image. The workshop will review examples from a variety of subject types within nature photography, ranging from birds to insects to landscapes. Participants will be encouraged to submit their own images for in-class editing.
Cost: $8 members, $15 nonmembers (can be applied to membership).

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
WORKSHOP III With Phil Witt
Saturday, February 14
10:00 a.m. to noon
Workshop III will focus on increasing the participants’ skill in critiquing and editing their images. All participants in this workshop will be required to submit images for a class critique, and then the workshop will explore ways that the images could have been composed or digitally edited to improve the composition.
Cost: $8 members, $15 nonmembers (can be applied to membership).

WONDER WALK AND TALK – TREES OF THE WINTER FOREST
With Dorothy Smullen
Sunday, December 28
2:00 to 3:30 p.m.
Trees tell us their “story,” even in winter without leaves. Activities and crafts will help us understand. Weather permitting, we will go for a walk in the forest to discover the connections between trees and wildlife.
Cost: $5 per family (can be applied to membership).

AN EVENING WITH LEWIS AND CLARK With Dorothy Smullen
Thursday, January 8
7:30 to 9:00 p.m.
View some vistas along the trail as well as the plants and wildlife Lewis and Clark encountered. Learn about the unusual history of the herbarium specimens these explorers collected.
Cost: Free

GLOBAL WANDERINGS: THE TECTONIC HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY With Michael Pollock
Saturday, February 7
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
As the first forms of complex life developed on earth, what was to become New Jersey was part of a supercontinent located near the South Pole. Follow New Jersey as it rides tectonic plates north. Continents separate and then collide again, mountain ranges build and erode, dinosaurs appear and disappear, glaciers scour the northern parts of the state, and finally our familiar rivers finish forming today’s natural landscape.
Cost: $8 members, $15 nonmembers.

BACKYARD HABITAT WORKSHOP – WATER GARDENS
With Michael Pollock
 Wednesday, February 11
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
The trees are bare and snow covers the flowerbeds. Now is the perfect time to dream about spring, singing birds, and fluttering butterflies. In the workshop we will look at the essential features of wildlife habitat, with a strong focus on the wetter areas of the yard. Ways to create water gardens by diversion of storm drains and other runoff will be discussed. If you have areas in mind for your own yard, bring a scale drawing (a copy of the survey works best). Yard size doesn’t matter, but the size of the drawing should be no larger than 11" x 17."
Cost: $8 members, $15 nonmembers.

BINS AND SCOPES FOR BIRDING
With Denis Cleary
Saturday, February 14
2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Whether you’re new to birding and buying that first good binocular, finally trading in that well-used clunker for your high-end fantasy machine, or you’re ready to take the spotting scope plunge, the more you know about optics, the happier and more confident you’ll be with your final purchase. In this workshop, store manager Denis Cleary will briefly review what the numbers and the jargon mean, after which there will be an extended period of hands-on comparisons of the various binoculars and spotting scopes we carry.
Cost: Free for members, $5 nonmembers (can be applied to purchase).

WONDER WALK AND TALK – WINTER ANIMAL SIGNS
With Dorothy Smullen
Sunday, February 15
2:00 to 3:30 p.m.
Days are short and the nights are long and cold. Activities will help us understand the signs that animals leave behind. Weather permitting, we will search for clues to the presence of animals on the sanctuary.
Cost: $5 per family (can be applied to membership).

STARTING NATIVE PLANTS FOR BUTTERFLIES
With Michael Pollock
Wednesday, February 18
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
February is planting time! It’s no secret – native butterflies prefer native plants! In this session we will learn some of the secrets of raising native plants for your own garden or meadow. Seeds and other materials will be provided for growing several great butterfly plants for both wet and dry areas. If you have collected any of your own seeds during the summer and fall, bring them along.
Cost: $8 members, $15 nonmembers.

FIELD TRIPS

BARNEGAT LIGHT AND BAY
Sunday, December 7
Meet at 8:00 a.m. at Hoffman or 10:00 a.m. at Barnegat Light. Trip goes to 5:00 p.m.
Harlequin Ducks and Purple Sandpipers are guaranteed. Black-legged Kittiwake, Northern Gannet, all three scoters, both eiders, both white-winged gulls, and Razorbill are all possible. We’ll wrap up on the marshes of Barnegat Bay, scanning for Short-eared Owls. This trip involves a long walk over sand and/or jetty, is usually windy and cold, but always productive.
Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers.

ISLAND BEACH STATE PARK
Saturday, December 13
8:45 a.m. to early afternoon
Join NJAS editor, naturalist, and birder Rick Radis for a visit to Island Beach
State Park for winter specialties.
Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers.

BEGINNING BIRDING FIELD TRIP
Saturday, December 27
Saturday, January 24
Saturday, February 28
9:00 a.m. to noon
We’ll start out learning the distinguishing characteristics or “field marks” of the abundant birds at the sanctuary feeding station and then caravan to Pleasant Plains Road in the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
Bring warm clothes for the swamp portion of the trip. We’ll have “loaner binoculars,” and field guides and spotting scopes to share.
Cost: $8 members, $15 nonmembers (can be applied to membership).

GREAT SWAMP NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
Saturday, January 3
8:45 to midafternoon
Join NJAS associate naturalist Rob Fanning to look for winter raptors, waterfowl, and Red-headed Woodpeckers.
Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers.

SANDY HOOK BIRDING
Sunday, February 1
8:45 a.m. to midafternoon
Join NJAS associate naturalist Carole Hughes to bird “The Hook” for waterfowl, gulls, and seabirds. It will be cold and windy; dress accordingly.
Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers.

WALLKILL RIVER NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
Led by Ken Witkowski
Sunday, February 15
2:00 p.m. until dark
Dress warmly for an afternoon searching for wintering passerines and raptors. At day’s end we’ll look for Short-eared Owls.
Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers.

LIBERTY STATE PARK FOR WATERBIRDS AND RAPTORS
Saturday, February 14
9:00 a.m. until noon
Meet at Liberty State Park.
With diving and dabbling ducks, loons, grebes, gulls, cormorants, and always a chance for an owl, Liberty is one of the better winter birding destinations in North Jersey.
Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers.

OLD MINE ROAD: DELAWARE WATER GAP & WORTHINGTON SP
Saturday, February 21
9:00 a.m. to midafternoon
Meet at the visitor center off Route 80 eastbound at the Delaware Water Gap.
Wintering birds along the Delaware usually include Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Purple Finch, Bald Eagles and possibly Golden Eagle, winter finches, and Northern Shrike.
Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers.

NEW JERSEY GEOLOGY: HUNTERDON
COUNTY/DELAWARE RIVER
With Michael Pollock
Saturday, March 7
9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
During the Triassic and Jurassic Periods, New Jersey lay near the center of the supercontinent of Pangaea, which was beginning to split apart. This event was accompanied by the deposition of thick layers of sedimentary rock and, toward the end, by massive flows of basalt lava. On this field trip we will examine both the sedimentary rocks and associated igneous intrusions found in Hunterdon County. Meet at the Round Valley Reservoir.
Cost: $10 members, $15 nonmembers.

THANKS

         Scherman-Hoffman’s 2008 Habitat Plant Sale was hands down our most successful ever! Most of the credit for this achievement goes to its coordinator, Mary Masilamani, who spent untold hours pulling everything together, from plant selection and ordering, to plant watering, and even plant pot reorganization – and everything in between (and there’s lots of stuff in between!). It’s a tremendous achievement, the revenue of which will greatly assist our ability to do the work of the sanctuary. Words cannot adequately express our appreciation and gratitude, but for now we’ll just say, “Thanks, Mary!”
         As Mary would be the first person to tell you, she didn’t do it alone. Many of our volunteers contributed to the great success of this plant sale: Jeffrey Abramson, Vaclav Benes, Ruth Bielefeld, Lee Cleary, Chris Cleary, Dick Donat, Darleen Donat, Michael Elder, Kathy Faupel, Jenny Harrington, Ted Koven, Gail Maleskey, Linda Matula, Patti McCloskey, Nichole McCloskey, Lois Mead, Barbara Nadolny, Siva Rajogopalan, Lori Sorensen, Terry Tuthill, Ann Watts, Kareen Rosenberg, and Joy Petzinger. Thanks, everyone!
         Thanks also to Lorraine Novinsky, Alice Koster, and Lee Cleary for their help on the “RMS/POS Label Project,” and to Jim O’Malley for all his assistance with computer and other technical issues.
         Thanks also to volunteers from the Victoria Foundation, Sanofi-Aventis, and the Morris Land Conservancy’s Partners for Parks program for restoration and management “work days” at the sanctuary. We could not have done this important work without their assistance.
         Thanks also to sanctuary volunteers who have worked tirelessly on the forest and meadow restoration work within the fifteen-acre deer exclosure: Katelyn Collins, Andrew Dragunas, Stephen Gruber, Randy Little, Grant McClusky, and Nichole McClusky.
         Thanks also to the Summer Camp staff: Rebecca Lesko, Laura Mayo, Jeff Keith, and Robin Anderson for conducting another very successful (fun, educational, and safe) summer camp. Finally, a special thanks to Woody Stevenson and James Peterson, summer camp naturalists.
         Construction at the Hoffman Center has resumed, albeit at the speed of a glacier. As of this writing in August, the glacier is advancing. We all look forward to completion of the facility.
 

Members receive discounts on program fees. If you are not a member and would like to become one, consider Joining New Jersey Audubon Society.