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Kaler's Pond Audubon Center is located in the eastern Long Island village of Center Moriches. The center was created in 1998 through a partnership of the Moriches Bay Audubon Society, now the Eastern Long Island Audubon Society, Flight 800 Memorial Committee, and the Town of Brookhaven, as part of the work to honor and remember the victims of the TWA Flight 800 jetliner crash. The chapter and the community together raised the funds to refurbish a barn on the site of the Flight 800 Memorial Gardens to create a nature center.

Thanks to the efforts of the Eastern Long Island Audubon Society and an active Advisory Board, the Center has increased its offerings and attendance each year since opening. Programs topics include Birding, Pond Ecology, Nature Sketching, Long Island Wildlife and many others. Badge programs are provided for local Girl Scout troops, and the Scouts have helped extensively with trail maintenance.

The Center's Summer Fun Programs for local children have been a perennial favorite, with attendance growing every year. Programs are also conducted by Center staff in conjunction with the Town of Brookhaven’s summer activities. The center features the Gilbert S. Raynor Interpretive Trail, a butterfly garden, gift shop, and displays of local plants, wildlife and minerals.

The Moriches Bay region of Long Island is one of New York's Important Bird Areas. The 20,000 acres of this IBA are home to a wide variety of nesting beach and salt marsh species. For example, in 1996 this area supported 16% of the state's population of endangered Piping Plovers and 18% of the threatened Least Terns that nest in New York. Being located in this IBA puts the Kaler's Pond Audubon Center in an excellent setting to blend education with Audubon's conservation work.

Kaler's Pond Audubon Center will be open weekends in April, May and September and then Thursdays through Sunday in the months of June, July and August. The Center is currently closed during the winter months. To get directions or to find out more about their programs, contact the Center at 631-878-5576 during open months, or go to the Kaler's Pond Audubon Center website.

Pam Musk, Director of Centers & Education
Audubon New York
200 Trillium Lane
Albany, NY 12203
(518) 869-9731; Fax: (518) 869-0737