Naugatuck State Forest West Block Field Trip Report – May 2025
On Sunday, May 18, 2025, twelve members of the club went to this fine birding location west of Route 8 in Naugatuck. The weather was fine and there was a nice variety of birds in this beautiful forest. There is varied habitat there, including deciduous forest, brushy fields, woodland ponds and hemlock woods. There is a beautiful ravine there, but the trail along it was washed out this winter, so we could only explore part of it. There were many highlights throughout the walk. One was hearing three separate Hooded Warblers singing on territory. It took some work (patience and perseverance) but we were ultimately rewarded with good looks at one of the three birds. We got great looks at a singing Acadian Flycatcher along the portion of the ravine trail that we were able to access. We also saw interesting birds at the two woodland ponds that we visited in the forest. At the larger one, there were nesting Canada Geese, Tree Swallows, Eastern Bluebird and Eastern Kingbird, along with flyover Broad-winged Hawk and Red-shouldered Hawk. At the other more secluded one, there were Solitary Sandpipers and a female Hooded Merganser. The open fields and powerline cut had singing Chestnut-sided, Prairie and Blue-winged Warblers. Other notable observations included Bay-breasted, Black-throated Green and Blackpoll Warbler. We observed a total of 58 species in this large and wild forest. We’ll be going back there again next year.
Chris Loscalzo