A Connecticut Neighborhood Known For Arctic Birds

When temperatures drop, a lot of us would rather curl up on a couch than brave the elements. But WNPR’s Nancy Cohen reports on a place some nature lovers prefer to visit in the depths of winter.

When I asked Patrick Comins, of Audubon Connecticut, where he likes to go when it gets cold he didn’t suggest a nature preserve or a wild life sanctuary, but a neighborhood off Route 4 in Goshen.

“It’s somewhat of a mystery, but it’s a very sparsely-populated neighborhood. And it’s really a lot of habitat and that’s really what draws the birds in."

The habitat here is made up of a variety of landscapes where birds from Canada come to forage for food in the winter.

“Over to my left here is a big open field. It’s a hay field. It’s open space that would mimic what birds of the tundra would be used to. If they are flying over here, they’re going to gravitate to this area. It looks like home.”

The Rough-legged Hawk comes here to hunt when the species it preys on, like lemmings and voles, are in short supply up north. But to find these birds you don’t have to spend a lot of time out in the cold.

“A lot of times you come up here and you hardly get out of the car unless you see any birds. A lot of it is birding by car.”

The cold-weather visitors include a group known as “winter finches”: the Pine Siskins, Grosbeaks and Red polls. Birders call them “irruptive” species because you never know when they’ll come down from the north. In this neighborhood there are scrubby young forests where they feed.

“A lot of trees are small. It would look unkept to most of our sensibilities. It's sort of raggedy. They would have classified this as a wasteland. But no matter whether a bird likes to forage up in the tree tops or down, close to the ground, they have lots of branches to check out and lots of different places to find food. See, there’s a bush over here with the red berries on it. That’s a winterberry.”

That bush could be covered with Bohemian waxwings if they come south. They’re fruit eaters. Down below are grasses and the remnants of Queen Anne’s Lace which contain seeds. Comins points out catkins hanging from a birch tree.

“Those little tiny look like almost like cones. But those are full of almost microscopic seeds the birds really love to eat.” 

Some Arctic birds look for cones from White Pines. The Red Crossbill and White-winged Crossbill come especially equipped for this food.

“Their bill, thus the name, is crossed at the end, almost like you were crossing your fingers for luck. They use that specifically to pry seeds out of pine cones.”

The cone crops, like these birds, are unpredictable. They’re never the same from year to year. 

We walk down a dead end road and Comins spots a bird that dashes into the woods.

“Side of road, there! Pheasant. That was cool. You don’t see pheasants very often.”

It’s a male ring-necked pheasant, with an iridescent green head and a long pointed tail 

“I don’t know if they did logging in here?”

At the end of the road we come to a kind of clear cut.

“Most environmentalists would look at this and say. ‘Oh my God! This is horrible. Look at all the trees they cut down!’ They may actually be doing this for wildlife. It looks like a wildlife cut because they left a few trees out here.”

Comins says we don’t have a lot of young forests left in the state—and that’s something birds like grouse and American woodcock require.

“People hate that, but sometimes it’s what’s needed for habitat diversity.”

This land belongs to the Naugatuck Fish and Game Club. Walking back to the car we meet one of its members, Shady Wheeler, driving by.

“We got 69 acres, I believe, that’s in there. We got fish in the pond. We stock it with trout.” 

Wheeler says he hunts every day.

“I got my dog, I got a pheasant in the back I shot.”

But the dead bird doesn’t bother Patrick Comins, Director of Bird Conservation from Audubon Connecticut.

“You add up all the land that the gun clubs and fish and game clubs own and manage in the state and the money they put in... and if it wasn’t for hunters we wouldn’t have much wildlife.”

“Very good comment,” said Wheeler.

Whether hunting for game or looking for Arctic birds, finding or even creating the right habitat is key.

For WNPR, I’m Nancy Cohen.