Friends of Prime Hook Events

The gates of Prime Hook NWR are open every day of the year from 1/2 hour before sunrise to 1/2 hour after sunset.

The administrative office is open M-F, 8am-4:30pm. The Hooked on Nature Store typically is open M-F, 9am-4pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 11am-3pm, or when the OPEN flag is flying. Both are closed on federal holidays. 

Questions? Contact us at 302-684-8419.

First Saturday Guided Bird Walks with Sussex Bird Club

2026: December 5

2027: January 2, February 6

NOTE: Inclement weather cancels this event.

Meet at 8am in the parking lot at the end of Turkle Pond Road.

Join members of the Sussex Bird Club monthly on the first Saturday for a 90+ minute guided bird walk on the Dike and Boardwalk Trails. For your comfort, insect repellant, long pants, and long sleeves are appropriate. The group leaders will have a scope for long-distance viewing, but feel free to bring your own scope, binoculars, and camera.

No registration is required.

Friends of Prime Hook Nature Book Club

Wednesday, November 18, 6:30pm

Prime Hook NWR, Multipurpose Room

Join us, at our next meeting, to discuss A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst. This is the true story of a young couple shipwrecked a year after successfully navigating the seas when a breaching whale punches a hole in their boat and sinks it. What follows is an electrifying tale of how they survived a wild Pacific, alone for months in a rubber raft, starving and exhausted, with little hope of rescue. The book is available in the public library system in several formats.

Registration is requested; click the button below to register. 

More Fall Field Trips

Weather Permitting

Meet at: the fishing parking lot end of Fowler Beach Road

November

Sunday, November 22, 2pm to 6pm: Walk to Fowler Beach to look for buntings, larks, sparrows, waterfowl, and raptors, AND spend the late afternoon on Fowler Beach Road to look/listen for short-eared owls.

Leaders: Nancy Cunningham & Carol Knapp

Sunday, November 29, 2pm to 6pm.: Walk to Fowler Beach to look for buntings, larks, sparrows, waterfowl, and raptors, AND spend the late afternoon on Fowler Beach Road to look/listen for short-eared owls.

Leaders: Nancy Cunningham & Randy Fisher

Holiday Shopping Event!

Hooked on Nature Book & Gift Store*

(Located at the PHNWR Visitor Contact Station; click here to read more about the Store)

Friday through Sunday, December 11 through December 13

AND

Saturday & Sunday, December 19 and December 20

During store hours, all dates

Do some of your holiday shopping at the Friends' Hooked on Nature stores on these dates, and enjoy some holiday savings! All visitors will receive a 10% discount; members of the Friends receive a 15% discount. There is a great variety of items perfect for gifting - come on by! (Pro Tip: Join the Friends while you're at the store, so you can receive that 15%!)  

*The Friends of Prime Hook NWR is a nonprofit, volunteer organization. Store profits are used to support the Refuge.

Close Out 2026 at Prime Hook Refuge

Thursday, December 31, 3pm to 6pm

Weather permitting

Meet at: PHNWR Visitor Contact Station

Enjoy a late-afternoon "end of year" walk on the Boardwalk and Dike Trails. Close out the year enjoying the beauty and peacefulness of Prime Hook. 

New Year Bird Walk at Prime Hook

Sunday, January 3, 9am to 4pm

Weather permitting

Meet at: PHNWR Visitor Contact Station

Join us to walk (or drive) through Prime Hook to start (or continue) your 2027 list. Or just enjoy the sights and sounds the day has to offer - no list required!

Let's Paint Nature (by Number) at Prime Hook

Monday, January 18, 3pm to 6pm

AND

Thursday, February 11, 3pm to 6pm

PHNWR Visitor Contact Station, Multipurpose Room

After a short walk at the Refuge, let's all go inside to the multipurpose room and have a fun evneing doing a "paint by number" nature scene. We'll supply the hot chocolate or coffee; you supply the talk and the talent! A donation of $10 is requested - but NOT required - to help with the cost of the paint kit. 

Registration is required; click on the button below to register.

Presentation: The Return of the Raven

Sunday, February 7, 2pm to 4pm

(Weather date: Saturday, February 20)

PHNWR Visitor Contact Station, Multipurpose Room

Join Rick Radis, New Jersey Audubon Field Trip leader - and mentor, across the years, to many birders! - to learn about one of the most (maybe even the most) intelligent birds: the raven, Corvus Corax, the trickster. 

The common raven, Corvus corax, has the widest distribution of any of the Corvidae - the family that includes jays, crows, nutcrackers, magpies, and birds such as rooks, jackdaws, and choughs. It is the largest and heaviest of the passerines (perching birds), and the smartest. This presentation will cover the historic status of the common raven in eastern North America from the late 1880s, its remarkable return in the 1990s, and its present status as a nesting species in many (often surprising) areas of NJ and the eastern states. This program promises to be entertaining as well as educational. 

Rick Radis first watched birds as a child on family trips to Cape May and remembers early trips to the old heron rookery in Stone Harbor. he is an editor, writer, and environmental consultant who has worked on land and water preservation and as an endangered species specialist since the late 1970s. He is a past editor of NJ Birds, NJ Audubon Magazine, and many other conservation publications. His writing, editorials, and photography have appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and many other national and regional publications. 

Registration is required; click the button below to register.