Ansonia Nature & Recreation Center — Attraction in Ansonia

You are greeted by a smaller asphalt parking lot than was previously in place and does more to separate this nature center from nature. There is a dangerous playground labeled for 5-12 year olds after a 3 year old fell 5 feet off of a poorly designed stairs that leads to a tall looping slide. Most handles around the stairs, ladders, and slides are loose and poorly set in place. There were more swings for smaller children now there is one and small tire swing as well as 2 kiddie swings and 2 regular swings at the entrance as well as a dated steel slide. The slides are all set in open sunlight and radiate extreme heat on mild and hot days leaving many children choosing not to go down the straight green slides. You will see more younger children on this playground as there have always been but again it is labeled for older children and justly because of it's poor design however this does not help the many parents trying to supervise their children. Outside of the Nature Center you will find the pyramid bilboard of Freemasonic sponsors who destroyed the old playground and installed this lackluster playground most kids find it hard to stay busy with so little to do. Inside of the Nature Center you see a lack of nature and understanding of the surrounding areas. It is sad that even something called a nature center has become so lost from...

I found a baby gold finch and took care of her for 3 weeks while I found a suitable place to take her and get her ready to go out into the wild. Within 2 days of having her and not listening to instruction she died. They claim it was stressed out and these things happen with wild birds. Well keeping her in a cage all day would stress her out, deal with it appropriately. They just left her in the cage and didn't let her out to calm her down. WILD BIRDS ARE NOT IN CAGES! I told them when I dropped her off that she wasn't use to a cage and would freak out. I would take her out and she would be fine. The wellbeings of these animals are way more important than forcing them into a stressful environment and not helping them cope with the stress. I'm completely disappointed in this facility I will never bring an animal or my children to The Ansonia Nature Center. I will not support an organization that looks at wild birds as a number and is no longer compassionate toward their cause. This is your...

I love the new playground and we always love to check out the animals however the staff is incredibly rude and they take themselves way too seriously. I took my son up there this afternoon because they were taking the animals out and letting the children pet them but the woman in charge of the presentation was very slow and spoke in an unexciting monotonous tone so some of the children were less than interested and she would stop the presentation over the smallest interruption in a room full of 2-5 year olds. While it's nice that they're making an effort to educate children about wildlife it's absurd to ask a room full of preschoolers to sit quietly with their hands folded if you're not even going to attempt to entertain them. A friendlier attitude from the staff would...