The Garden City Bird Sanctuary normally closes for the year at the end of September. This week it reopens after dark. Haunted Hikes, the sanctuary's Halloween fundraiser, runs Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24, with gates opening at 6:30 p.m. each night.

Admission is $10 per person, with tickets sold online in advance or at the door. Last admission is at 7:45 p.m. and the hikes wrap up at 8 p.m., so the window is a tight one: arrive early. If a night is rained out, tickets carry over to any other night the event is open.

Nine acres in the middle of the neighborhood

The sanctuary is a nine-acre preserve at 182 Tanners Pond Road, tucked into a residential stretch of Garden City, with wooded trails, open fields, meadows, gardens and a small fishpond. It is marking its 31st year this season.

During its regular season, which runs from the last weekend of April through the last full weekend of September, the sanctuary is open on weekends from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., when the weather allows, and admission is free. The gates, the trails and the programs are all run by a volunteer corps.

Where the money goes

The Garden City Bird Sanctuary is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that manages the greenspace for environmental stewardship, research, education and community programs. It receives no funding from the Village of Garden City, Nassau County or New York State, and operates entirely on donations and volunteer labor, so the $10 Haunted Hikes admission is one of the ways the preserve pays for its own upkeep. All proceeds from the event go to the sanctuary's operations, programs, maintenance and preservation.

Ticket buyers should bring their email confirmation for entry. Tickets are available through the sanctuary's website, with per-night options for Friday and Saturday.

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