Leaving quickly was the best immediate strategy, but reporting this behavior to the police even by dialing 911 when you were safely out of danger would have been warranted.� It's not too late to take action to notify the authorities, although the option to dial 911 would no longer apply.
�
Jim (Michael) Speicher
�
________________________________
From: Jim Moore <epiphenomenon9...>
To: "<mdbirding...>" <mdbirding...>
Sent: Sunday, September 2, 2012 9:55 PM
Subject: [MDBirding] Warning to anyone visiting Oakwood Turf Farm (Wicomico County)
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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