Fireside Yoga: Flow, Breath, Restore
This winter, Fireside Yoga offers a chance to slow down and reconnect. Held indoors by the warmth of a crackling fire, this series weaves together meditation, dynamic vinyasa flows, and...
This winter, Fireside Yoga offers a chance to slow down and reconnect. Held indoors by the warmth of a crackling fire, this series weaves together meditation, dynamic vinyasa flows, and...
Join us for a relaxing morning of knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and other needlework. We will gather around the fireplace and share stories, ideas, and advice as we each work on...
This winter, Fireside Yoga offers a chance to slow down and reconnect. Held indoors by the warmth of a crackling fire, this series weaves together meditation, dynamic vinyasa flows, and...
Join us for a relaxing morning of knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and other needlework. We will gather around the fireplace and share stories, ideas, and advice as we each work on...
This winter, Fireside Yoga offers a chance to slow down and reconnect. Held indoors by the warmth of a crackling fire, this series weaves together meditation, dynamic vinyasa flows, and...
Join us for a relaxing morning of knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and other needlework. We will gather around the fireplace and share stories, ideas, and advice as we each work on...
Have you ever wanted to make your own maple syrup? Let us teach you each step of this sweet process and review the materials needed for backyard production. Please dress...
Join us for an in-depth exploration of one of the universe's most fascinating phenomena—the life cycle of a star. This indoor presentation will guide you through the stages of stellar...
Join us for a relaxing morning of knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and other needlework. We will gather around the fireplace and share stories, ideas, and advice as we each work on...
Join Director Nancy Ponturo with her extraordinary cast of actors, and watch the hilarity unfold as Tracy Lord, CK Dexter Haven, and other memorable characters are brought to life in...
Enjoy a fun night out with friends as our artist instructor leads you on a step-by-step journey to create a wonderful masterpiece inspired by New Pond Farm’s beauty. All experience...
“Peent, peent”, the nasally call of the American Woodcock, also known as a Timberdoodle, is hard to mistake. Join NPF Board Member Bruce Ward as we look and listen for...
Design and personalize either a pair of earrings or two unique pins. Watch as your creations magically shrink and transform into wearable art! This program is:$20 per member,$30 per non-member...
Learn to embroider with a master embroiderer! You will learn a variety of common embroidery stitches while creating a small floral design. All materials will be provided including a small...
Explore evidence of the geological processes that created New Pond Farm’s 102 acre landscape over 450 million years ago. Join Geologist Bruce Ward on a guided walk to the top...
101 Marchant Rd West, Redding, CT 06896
Phone: (203) 938-2117
Email: info@newpondfarm.org
Learning Center Hours: 9 AM-5 PM
Dairy Annex Hours: 7 AM – 7 PM
© 2025 New Pond Farm Education Center, All Rights Reserved. Website by Social Graces Communications.
An Avian Success Story: In the early 1900s European Starlings and English Sparrows were introduced into the northeast. For decades, these aggressive cavity nesters out-competed the more docile bluebirds for nest sites, so their populations were in serious decline. Environmental groups and individuals came to the rescue. Wooden nesting boxes were installed throughout the area and thankfully the Bluebirds proved to be quite adaptable, successfully raising their families in these new homes.
As you walk through our lower pastures and wildflower meadow, you may be fortunate enough to see bluebirds sitting on our nesting boxes. The males have brilliant blue plumage on their wings and back, a rusty colored breast and sides, and white undersides. The wings and back of the females are a more subtle grayish blue.
Once you learn the warbling vocalizations of these members of the thrush family, you will hear them frequently throughout your walk.
In addition to the many insects that make up their summer diet, our bluebirds feast on the berries of native shrubs throughout the fall and winter. We have planted stands of native winterberries (Ilex verticillate) and flowering dogwoods (Cornus florida) to add to our native staghorn sumacs (Rhus typina), and elderberries (Sambucus nigra).
Another bird that DEEP considers a species of special concern is the Purple Martin. Once commonly seen flying over open agricultural lands across the State, these aerial acrobats have been in decline for decades due to lack of open fields and pastures, lack of suitable nesting sites, and competition from aggressive non-native European starlings and house sparrows
For several decades, conservation efforts have been in place across the State to bring back the Purple Martins, and efforts are paying off! Arrangements of specially-sized, artificial hollow gourds have been hung from tall poles in appropriate habitats. Groups like the CT Audubon Society have well established banding programs, and DEEP reports that the Martin populations are on the rise.
New Pond Farm’s pastures seem like a perfect habitat, so during the nesting season, we too have positioned an arrangement of hanging gourds near the white fenceline along the pasture. If you venture over here during the early morning hours in the spring, you may hear the loop of pre-recorded twittering calls that we play in an attempt to attract any migrants. So far, we have just attracted a few scouting birds. Hopefully the spring of 2024 may be our lucky year
Back in the 1980s, a pair of kestrels nested reliably in a box positioned in the large sugar maple along our Farm Road. These exquisite, robin-sized, falcons were an absolute joy to behold as they would soar, hover, and plunge over the pastures and lawns searching for insects, small mammals, amphibians, and reptiles.
For many years we have been without a nesting pair, and for the past several decades DEEP has listed American Kestrels as a species of special concern.
Working with Art Gingert, who is well known in the State for his decades of d devotion to reestablishing nesting pairs of kestrels, we have installed a kestrel box on the eastern side of our pasture. No takers yet, but the box will be back up early in the spring of 2024, and we are hopeful.