A New Birding Group is Forming
Photo by Tom Haggerty
Photo by Tom Haggerty
Crested Flycatcher and Eastern Kingbird. Photo by Chuan-Chu Chou
White schizophyllaceae seen close to the area of the Swing Slope, flowering dewberry near the dam, yellow auriscalpiaceae on the right side of the trail near the Prospect Street entrance
Photo by Chuan-Chu Chou
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A Celebration of SummerBrightwood Park is a great place to spot some interesting birds, ducks and turtles these summer days.
Photo by Tom Haggerty
Photo by Tom Haggerty
Photo by Chuan-Chu Chou
Ghost Pipe photo by JPL
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thank you for attending!
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Young Nature Artists Emerge at Plein Air
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Brightwood Day 2025 - it's a wrap!
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A wonderful crowd showed up to enjoy our fairy house hunt, yoga, forest bathing, birding, photography and meeting other nature-curious neighbors and and making new friends.
On May 3, 2025 Friends of Brightwood Park held their 3rd annual Brightwood Park Day celebration. This day was intended to showcase all the activities Brightwood Park has to offer. Keeping with the philosophy that the park is meant to be a nature "sanctuary", we offered several "passive" activities throughout the day, starting with birding early in the morning. A session on photography was then offered, followed by forest bathing, nature hikes, yoga, nature classes, and native species planting. The final event of the day was the very popular fairy house scavenger hunt where participants made fairy wands and were given fairy wings, then walked through the woods to discover the ten fairy villages hidden among the trees. It was rumored that there were several actual fairy "sightings" along the way.
A tour highlighting park history was held the following day. Additionally, several other local organizations set up booths to showcase their particular interest in the environment. These included the Westfield Green Team, Westfield Memorial Library, Westfield Garden Club, Raritan River Watershed Association, Union County Native Plant Society, the Watershed Ambassador group, and the Westfield Tree Preservation Commission, who along with Westfield DPW handed out several types of tree tubelings. A special thanks to all these groups! We hope everyone who attended found the day both fun and enlightening and we hope to see even more of you next year! |
A celebration of May by Four Celebrities
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Photos by Chuan-Chu Chou
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2025 Sustaining Members MeetingFriends of Brightwood Park came together over 5 years ago to nurture the natural treasure they had enjoyed for many years. The park needed so much help with invasive species; trash; reforestation; and pond loop trail maintenance. Since 2020, the Friends have worked hard to restore the park.
The work continues, and we are excited to announce new members to our Board of Directors: Brian Duggan, Cheryl Katz, Peter Kraus, and Sapeksm Madan. |
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Nature Detectives - Classes for Kids - 2025 Classes
A Nature Detective at Work
Our educational monthly classes are each a different theme and encourage children to explore the natural setting at Brightwood Park
4 Session - 11:00, 11:30 AM and 3:00, 3:30 PM
Limit 10 families per session 2-4 Year Olds with Adult 10:00 to 10:45 am
4-8 Year Olds 3:45 to 4:45 pm For more information and sign ups, see
Westfield Recreation Page |
Spring Class Recap & Looking Forward
We look forward to continuing classes in the fall and get ready for our fabulously fun Halloween event on the Saturday before Halloween.
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Newsflash!
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Beautiful Olive Green Sweatshirts for Adults Now with Embroidered Green Heron LogoOur new dark olive green sweatshirt is made with Champion Powerblend fabric, offering the best of warmth and durability without the extra weight.
Unlike the previous sweatshirts with a printed logo, the logo in this one is embroidered. New Sweatshirts, Tees & Hats for kidsOur new forest green children’s sweatshirt features our logo printed front and center on a soft, comfortable poly/cotton blend
Brightwood Hats Now Available Downtown at the Town Bookstore!If you need a cute, colorful gift, or pick-me-up for yourself, pop into the Town Bookstore in downtown Westfield to see the full color assortment of our signature hats. The price is the same as on our website, but of course no shipping and no waiting.
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Native Planting ProjectThe Pollinator Garden in the parking lot is bigger and better this year. Thanks to hard work by volunteer Bianca Wright and many others, this garden has been extended along the length of the parking lot and many new plants have been added.
The goal is to introduce native plants to increase the biodiversity of the flora in Brightwood, and by extension, the biodiversity of the bugs, butterflies and fauna that are characteristic of a healthy ecosystem. Look for these demonstration gardens and plantings when you visit Brightwood Park. Photos by Denise Ricci and Chuan-Chu Chou |
The Brightwood Park Bird Hats are Everywhere!
Bird spotting in the City!
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Bird Hats in Beloit, Wisconsin!!
Upal, Tracy, Joy and Jordy
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The Bird Hat has been spotted in Germany!
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Oliver, sporting his Orange Bird Hat.
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Thanks for your support!! And send us your pictures!
Friends of Brightwood Park GearHats in many colors!
Hats for Kids! New Toddler & Youth Tees! New Adult long-sleeve Tees! |
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History Tours of Brightwood
2025 Dates
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Samuel Jarvis, 76, of Fanwood Ave (now part of Brightwood Park).
The Brightwood area was once a center of African American society in NJ. The Friends of Brightwood, in an effort led by Rob Lombard, has begun to explore and document this history.
The latest addition to the set of stories...
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Volunteer Spotlight: Nicole Konarzewski
Nicole Konarzewski
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If you have seen pictures of our many fun events at Brightwood Park on Facebook or Instagram, that is thanks to Nicole Konarzewski, our social media extraordinaire volunteer.
Nicole lives in Westfield and has worked as a nanny for a lucky family for five years. She found Westfield’s hidden gem, Brightwood Park, quite fortuitously one afternoon. After dropping off her charges for an event, she simply Googled “a park nearby.” She was just a few hundred feet away, so she decided to explore. She immediately fell in love with the park and checked out the website for more information. Luckily for us, we were running an ad for a social media volunteer. Nicole answered the ad and it has been a wonderful union between the members of Friends of Brightwood Park and Nicole. She volunteers her time freely for our events and posts her pictures to give others an idea of the fun activities that are held at the park. Thank you, Nicole! We enjoy your pleasant personality as well as your willingness to volunteer your time to a park that we all are passionate about. See you at our next event! |
Friends of Brightwood Park are working to:
- preserve & restore the park as a nature sanctuary
- remove invasive species that threaten native plants & trees
- promote hiking, walking, fishing, birdwatching and activities in harmony with the habitat
- offer nature and art programs for all ages
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Volunteers Needed!
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2024 Review & 2025 Preview
The 2025 Annual Meeting will be held January 25 for Sustaining Members - look here for the updates from that meeting!
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