102. CT Audubon Society Center at Pomfret

Don’t Fret; A Title Pun is in the Pom of my Hands…
Pomfret
(Google Maps Location)
May 17, 2009

pomfret-audubon.jpgI’m pretty certain we are the only family who gets in their car, drives up and down hills for an hour east to Pomfret in order to check out a small Audubon Society nature center. After all, there is a larger Audubon center in Glastonbury (CTMQ Visit here) and many other closer nature centers.

Oh yeah… That’s what I do. It sure is nice to have a complicit wife and son. (Don’t worry, Hoang got a wine tasting at Sharpe Hill, and they both got top-notch ice cream and pizza.)

End to end, Route 44 is almost exactly 100 miles from Putnam to Salisbury. The winding hills through northeast Connecticut (and Pomfret) is beautiful and rural. The middle section it shares with I-84 through Vernon/Manchester/East Hartford is obviously lame, and then through Hartford’s not-so-friendly north end is ugly, but once over Avon Mountain and through the Canton Shoppes mess, it returns to pastoral beauty.

102f.jpgSo… Pomfret. While it sounds like a French desert of fried apples or something, the name of the town was derived in the early 1700′s from the town of Yorkshire (Pontefrat, pronounced ‘Pomfret’) which was the English home of the family of Governor Saltonstall. I bet you’ve never once thought about Pomfret before… But now we will – together.

It has its quirks. Pomfret is the exceedingly rare Connecticut town without a town center. In the 100 years after Pomfret was incorporated, Hampton, Brooklyn and Putnam all incorporated as their own towns, building up around their own town centers and power sources. Pomfret was left with pretty much nothing but open space and farms, which is more-or-less how it continues today.

102b.jpgIt’s small and only 4,000 people live there. Oh sure, there are things to do, but not quite things normal people drive an hour to do. It does have a motto at least: Picturesque Pomfret. And two hyper-expensive private schools (Here’s a shot of one, to give you a flavor). And a little rock cave where Israel Putnam supposedly shot the last wolf in Connecticut. And a church with a bunch of original Tiffany windows (he was from these parts). And a well-regarded café called the Vanilla Bean where Coca-Cola launched Vanilla Coke in 2002. (Why? I don’t know… But you can read all about it here, the HTML version of a pdf file all about Vanilla Coke’s launch.)

Oh do go on…

102d.jpgBasketball Hall-of-Famer UConn coach Jim Calhoun lives here. Rivers Cuomo from Weezer lived here. After Renée Zellweger married Kenny Chesney and annulled the union 4 months later, she bought a house here for some reason and still lives there part time. According to an old Courant article, “Renee Zellweger’s northeast Connecticut home is so remote, she says, people give directions like “make a left at the big tree.” “When you turn your headlights out at night, it’s dark,” she says… “There are no paparazzi within a country mile.” Um, does Renee Zellweger still warrant paparazzi?

Oh yeah, and there’s an Audubon Center there as well.

We arrived and were greeted by one of the nicest people I’ve met thus far along my journey. It always helps when you have a cute kid in tow, but I think she’d have been just as nice to me if I were solo. Upon learning we were from the far off town of West Hartford, I was plied with all sorts of Pomfretalia and urged to visit the local businesses. This Audubon center is on the small side, with just one vestibule attached to a room full of bird stuff. (There are other administrative areas too.)

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Yet another new flat screen at yet another Audubon/Nature Center.

We had been promising Damian some snakes (“Ssssss” in Damianese), as the other two Audubon Centers I’ve visited had plenty of them. But this one is true to the Audubon cause: Birds. And while there are no live birds here, and the stuffed ones are not plentiful, there is a lot of information about our local birds.

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View of owls from the toilet. Nice.

In addition to the birds, there are a few other stuffed animals – a bobcat, a beaver, a porcupine and a fisher. Funny thing about that fisher, the lady who was manning the center sort of politely laughed at Hoang for never having seen one, as though her backyard is full of them. Well, I’ve never seen one in the wild either, though I look forward to that day.

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Damian prefers the multi-pencil technique he’s pioneered

Oddly, the one live animal here is a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. (The Center in Milford had a tank full of them – CTMQ Visit.) Damian found this little guy hilarious, but quickly moved on to coloring an owl picture with Mama. Because he was so well behaved, the woman gave him a cute little snowy owl stuffed animal. It used to play the call of a mother owl, but no longer.

102k.jpgHoang named her Mamsy immediately and Damian took to her like no other animal before her. He wouldn’t stop hugging her (you can see her in Damian’s hand on our little hike on the property) and sleeps with her to this day – assuming you’re reading this in mid-2009. So thank you, kind lady, for the gift.

On the wall during our visit were many photos by local aerial photographer, G.L. Sweetnam. The shots were not only beautiful, but just plain cool. They are all for sale and his website has thousands you can view. I just spent a good deal of time there, and was only looking at the Putnam section! He also makes/sells lamps and portrays a Civil War guy… I think I should meet Mr. Sweetnam. I hope he doesn’t mind me stealing one of his pictures…

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Bafflin Farm, where the Audubon Center’s property is. Eh, I’m going to show you two of his shots…

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A pumpkin field in Pomfret

As you can tell, this place isn’t really about the indoor center, but rather the 700 acre preserve out the back door: “Our newest facility serves as the gateway to the adjoining 700-acre Connecticut Audubon Society Bafflin Sanctuary with its vast rolling meadows, forests, streams and fertile grassland habitats. The successful combination of a Center and wildlife sanctuary greatly expands environmental learning.”

102h.jpgUntil recently, this property was a working dairy farm. A large beaver pond, extensive fields, a hemlock ravine and stream are just a few of the remarkable natural features of this property. Trails have some interpretive signage. Connecticut Audubon Society resident staff naturalists serve as caretakers of the property and offer guided bird walks and other environmental programs.

They offer a TON of cool programs here. I can’t even begin to describe them, but it seems like there’s something fun for kids and adults here almost daily. Check it out. That’s what the Pomfret Center is all about… the REAL stuff, not the stuffed stuff.

I just wonder if Renée Zellweger has ever gone on a bird walk here? I choose to think she has… Maybe it would wipe that sour puss off her face.

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Mamsy in her new home with friends Chookanooka and Dayshon

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Cost: Free
Hours: M-F 9-4, Sat-Sun 12-4
Food & Drink? No Question: The Vanilla Bean Cafe
Children? Absolutely
You’ll like it if: You bring a cute kid and get a free stuffed owl
You won’t like it if: You are Kenny Chesney
Freebies: Mamsy!

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For the Curious:

Pomfret Audubon Center
Bafflin Sactuary
Learn all about Route 44
Fishers
G.L. Sweetnam’s Photography
Sweetnam drawing attention to the “Last Green Valley”

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4 responses to “102. CT Audubon Society Center at Pomfret”

  1. honeybunny says:

    I love mamsy.

    hb

  2. Rob says:

    “Um, does Renee Zellweger still warrant paparazzi?”

    Oh snap, she is goinjg to squint at you extra squinty…

  3. molly says:

    WHERE IS YOUR PHONE NUMBER ON HERE?!?!?!? GAWSH I HAVE A GOOSE WITH A BROKEN WING ON MY HANDS AND I CANT CONTACT YOU!

  4. Steve says:

    Molly, my dear, calm down and stop yelling at me.

    Now do something you failed to do the first time you came here – try actually READING, say, the very first sentence on this page. Hell, even easier, note the URL of this website. Perhaps then you’ll come to realize this page you yell-commented on has nothing in the world to do with the Pomfret Audubon Society.

    Would they post a picture of their bathroom or a bunch of picturse of some random kid? Of course, if you really want to call ME, a guy who has never touched a live bird in my life, I guess you can contact me via email. But you’ll have to figure out how to do that first, and I don’t have any confidence in your ability to do that.

    Good luck to you and your doomed goose. Which is probably a robin or something anyway.

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