ANNUAL HARVEST FESTIVAL Science and Nature Day!
Join us for an exciting afternoon on the farm amidst the beautiful fall foliage.
Join us for an exciting afternoon on the farm amidst the beautiful fall foliage.
Join us in a celebration of the world’s reptiles. Come meet some of our resident turtles, snakes, and lizards and learn what makes each of them special. Free for members! $10 per non-member family Registration is required.
Join us in a celebration of the world’s reptiles. Come meet some of our resident turtles, snakes, and lizards and learn what makes each of them special. Free for members! $10 per non-member family Registration is required.
Join our guides as you wind your way through our enchanted woodlands learning about fascinating furred and feathered nocturnal neighbors including skunks, raccoons, owls, and foxes. Test your own nighttime hunting abilities through a series of family-friendly activities. Enjoy a mid-walk break at our inviting campfire where you will be treated to farm fresh hot...
Join our guides as you wind your way through our enchanted woodlands learning about fascinating furred and feathered nocturnal neighbors including skunks, raccoons, owls, and foxes. Test your own nighttime hunting abilities through a series of family-friendly activities. Enjoy a mid-walk break at our inviting campfire where you will be treated to farm fresh hot...
Join our guides as you wind your way through our enchanted woodlands learning about fascinating furred and feathered nocturnal neighbors including skunks, raccoons, owls, and foxes. Test your own nighttime hunting abilities through a series of family-friendly activities. Enjoy a mid-walk break at our inviting campfire where you will be treated to farm fresh hot...
Join our guides as you wind your way through our enchanted woodlands learning about fascinating furred and feathered nocturnal neighbors including skunks, raccoons, owls, and foxes. Test your own nighttime hunting abilities through a series of family-friendly activities. Enjoy a mid-walk break at our inviting campfire where you will be treated to farm fresh hot...
Join our guides as you wind your way through our enchanted woodlands learning about fascinating furred and feathered nocturnal neighbors including skunks, raccoons, owls, and foxes. Test your own nighttime hunting abilities through a series of family-friendly activities. Enjoy a mid-walk break at our inviting campfire where you will be treated to farm fresh hot...
Join our guides as you wind your way through our enchanted woodlands learning about fascinating furred and feathered nocturnal neighbors including skunks, raccoons, owls, and foxes. Test your own nighttime hunting abilities through a series of family-friendly activities. Enjoy a mid-walk break at our inviting campfire where you will be treated to farm fresh hot...
Your young artist will enjoy a fun night out while painting their very own masterpiece. We will explore different and unconventional ways of painting while creating a scene inspired by the residents of New Pond Farm. Popcorn and other snacks will be provided. This drop-off program is: $25 per member, $30 per non-member Registration is...
Celebrate National Native American Heritage Month with us as we learn about the history of the area’s first people at New Pond Farm’s Native American Museum and Encampment. This hands-on, family program will include exploring the newly rebuilt longhouse and wigwam, enjoying maple syrup on freshly baked cornbread, stories and cooking demonstrations around the fire,...
Come learn basic cooking skills while making, tasting, and taking home delicious seasonal treats. This drop-off program is: $30 per member, $40 per non-member Registration is required, space is limited
6 weeks: Wednesday, November 6 - December 18 (no class 11/27) Did you know New Pond Farm has more than farm animals? Join the Animal Care Club and learn how to care for the many reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and invertebrates that live in the Learning Center. Club members will make salads for turtles, clean snake...
Microplastics are ubiquitous in the environment and can be found in marine and freshwater ecosystems, food, air, and drinking water. Learn more about this important issue with consultant, educator, researcher, and explorer Tim Keyes as he shares the results of sampling done around the country, including here at New Pond Farm. Following the discussion, watch...
Thursdays: November 7, 14, & 21 Join us for this monthly 3-part series full of outdoor nature adventures. Each week we will explore the property and make exciting discoveries in our woodlands, wetlands, gardens, or meadow. How we spend each afternoon will vary based on group interest – hikes, games, critter hunts, animal encounters, and...
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.