Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Connecticut spring turkey season opens, runs through May 30

Connecticut spring turkey season opens, runs through May 30

A pair of turkeys walk across a private driveway in South Kent.

Alec Linden

KENT – It may be months from Thanksgiving, but Connecticut’s spring turkey hunting season is now underway, running from April 29 through May 30.

Hunters are permitted up to five male turkeys during the season, known as “toms” for adults or “jakes” for juveniles, which are marked by their distinctive “beards” – protrusions of hair-like feathers that extend from their necks. Shotguns and bows are the only weapons allowed for turkey hunting in the state.

A new law passed last year allows hunting on Sundays on private land with the proper permitting. Previously, hunting wasn’t allowed on Sundays in Connecticut.

Local hunter and electrical contractor Chris Harrington, who lives in Kent, said rural residents shouldn’t be alarmed if they hear gunfire over the next month. “Most of the time in Northwestern Connecticut, when you hear a gunshot, it’s somebody hunting or recreational shooting,” he said.

He also urged outdoor recreators to dress to stand out when in the woods during any active hunting season.

“You should always be wearing bright colors when you’re hiking,” he said.

Harrington said he’s been hunting turkeys since it became legal in the 1980s. While once plentiful in the state, colonists hunted the birds to near elimination in New England before reintroduction efforts began to restore a stable population.

“When I was a kid, there were no turkeys in the state,” said Harrington, who grew up in Kent.

Today, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) estimates the turkey population at over 30,000.

“Wild turkeys are a conservation success story, with populations rebounding over the past few decades,” said DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes in a statement announcing the start of the season.

Harrington said he hunts for food, and to carry on a family tradition, having been taught by his grandfather.

“Deer hunting and turkey hunting and rabbits and small game and fishing was a big part of their food,” he said of his grandparents.

Now, occasionally bringing his own sons along, he said he won’t kill anything he won’t eat.

After the spring season ends, turkey hunters have other opportunities later in the year. A short firearm season runs Oct. 3 through Oct. 31 and allows hunters up to three birds of either sex, and a fall bow season allows hunting on state-owned designated bowhunting areas and private property from Sept. 15 to Dec. 31, with a cap of two birds of either sex.

Latest News

Motorcycle crash near Route 7 prompts Life Star landing at HVRHS

Motorcycle crash near Route 7 prompts Life Star landing at HVRHS

A Life Star helicopter lands on the front lawn of Housatonic Valley Regional High School on Saturday, May 16, to transport a motorcycle crash victim to a hospital.

Aly Morrissey

LIME ROCK — A motorcycle crash involving a car temporarily shut down a section of Route 112 near the intersection with Route 7 on Saturday afternoon, drawing a large emergency response and prompting a Life Star helicopter landing at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.

Emergency responders at the scene confirmed the incident involved a motorcycle and passenger vehicle. Route 7 was closed from Dugway Road to the intersection of Routes 7 and 112 while crews responded.

Keep ReadingShow less
Van strikes utility pole, closes Route 112 for hours

Traffic was diverted near Wells Hill Road after a crash closed part of Route 112 Friday afternoon.

By James H. Clark

A van crashed into a utility pole on Route 112 near Wells Hill Road Friday afternoon, leaving the driver hospitalized in serious condition and forcing the highway to close for several hours.

The crash was reported at approximately 3:20 p.m., according to Connecticut State Police Troop B.

Keep ReadingShow less
Voices from our Salisbury community about the housing we need for a healthy, economically vibrant future

Renee Wilcox

If you’ve ever wandered through Paley’s Farm Market, you probably know Renee Wilcox. For thirty years, she has been greeting you with unmistakable warmth—always ready with a smile. Renee grew up in Millerton, but it was in Salisbury that her family found something they’d never had before: a true sense of home. In 2003, she and her husband Bill were living in Millerton, but Bill—a volunteer with the Lakeville Hose Company—was already part of Salisbury life. When the Salisbury Housing Trust finished eight new homes on East Main Street (Dunham Drive), Renee and Bill were the first to sign on.

The story of those houses is really a story about the best parts of our community. Richard Dunham and his wife, Inge, along with the Housing Trust board, poured years of energy and hope into the project. Renee can’t help but light up when she talks about the people who helped her family settle in. Digby Brown came by to install appliances and bathroom cabinets; Barbara Niles spent hours painting; Carl Williams assembled bunk beds for the kids. Rick Cantele, at Salisbury Bank, helped them with their finances so they could qualify for a mortgage, while neighbors arrived at their door with fruit baskets and welcoming words.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Trade Secrets: a glamorous garden event with a deeper mission

Heavy stone garden ornaments, a specialty of Judy Milne Antiques from Kingston, at Trade Secrets 2025.

Christine Bates

Tucked away on Porter Street in downtown Lakeville, Project SAGE is an unassuming building from a street view. But cross the threshold a week before Trade Secrets — one of the region’s biggest gardening events, long associated with Martha Stewart and glamorous plants of all varieties — and you’ll find a bustling world of employees and volunteers getting ready for the organization’s most important event of the year.

“It’s not usually like this,’ laughed Project SAGE director Kristen van Ginhoven. “But with Trade Secrets just around the corner, it’s definitely like this.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Two artists, two Hartford stages, one shared life

Caroline Kinsolving and Gary Capozzielo at home in Salisbury with their dogs, Petruchio and Beatrice

Provided
"He played his violin, I worked on my lines, we walked the dog, and suddenly we were circling each other perfectly."
Caroline Kinsolving

Actor Caroline Kinsolving and violinist Gary Capozziello enjoy their quiet life with their two dogs in Salisbury, yet are often pulled apart to perform on distant stages in far-flung cities. Currently, the planets have aligned, and both are working in Hartford, across Bushnell Park from one another. Bridgewater native Kinsolving is starring in “Circus Fire,” the current production of TheaterWorks Hartford, while Capozziello is a violinist and assistant concertmaster of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. While Kinsolving hates being away from home, she feels the distance nourishes their relationship.

“We are guardians of each other’s confidence and self-esteem,” she said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Local filmmaker turns spotlight back on Hollywood’s Mermaid

Esther Williams in “Million Dollar Mermaid” (1952).

Provided

For decades, Esther Williams was one of Hollywood’s brightest stars, but the swimming sensation of the silver screen has largely faded from public memory — a disappearance that intrigued Millerton filmmaker Brian Gersten and inspired him to revisit her legacy.

As a millennial, Gersten grew up largely unaware of Williams’ influential career. His teen years in Chicago were spent with friends who obsessed over movies, spending hours at their local independent video store,and watching anything that caught their eye. Somehow, though, they never ventured into the glossy world of synchronized-swimming musicals of the 1940s and ‘50s.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.