Summary: If you use Taylor Road, a dead end but apparently public road
that intersects with Waller Rd., to view Oakwood Turf Farm, you risk an
irrational and violent confrontation with one of the residents. (N.B.:
there are other roads to view the farm, e.g. Brown Rd. , Waller Rd., and
Hampshire Rd.--though Taylor Rd. is the location of an eBird hotspot and
has been popular with birders.)
My experience on Sunday Sept. 2: I was visiting Oakwood Turf Farm for
the first time. It was raining hard and there was lightning when I got
there, so I pulled off and parked on Taylor Rd. I was going to wait 10
minutes to see if the rain passed. I was NOT parked in front of
anyone's house--I had turf farm to one side and a field of crops to the
other--the nearest building was at least 200 ft away. After I had
waited only a few minutes, a large twenty-ish burly fellow approached me
probably coming from a house down the street and bizarrely walking in
the rain with no protection. He asked politely if he could help me with
anything. I said, also politely, that I was waiting for the rain to
pass and that I was there to look at birds--though he probably turned
around before he heard anything about looking for birds. He then walked
back and he returned riding as a passenger in a pickup truck with a
large older fellow as driver (possibly his father) who looked like an
extra from a bad biker movie (big, grizzly fellow, with tatoos, etc.).
The older driver opened his window, and I opened mine, and I started to
explain that I was waiting for the rain to pass, when he almost
immediately went berserk--calling me a motherf___, jumping out of his
truck (in the rain) and slamming his hand against my car window--clearly
giving the impression that he intended to beat me to a pulp if given the
chance. I said as I was rolling up my window "Jesus, I'll get out of
here then" and left. I want to stress I did NOTHING to provoke this
guy, and I was never even asked to leave or given an explanation as to
why I was unwelcome--he just went straight into violence.
My guess is this is another example of the irrational hostility to
strangers shown by some living in remote areas of the Eastern Shore.
Jim M.
Mont. Co., MD
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