Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 08:47:27 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Re: Oland Rd. lappies In-Reply-To: <402904F6.2030906@birdtreks.com> Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit This field area (New Design/Oland/Rt. 85/Lilypons Rd.) is the heart of the New Design birding area, which (as everyone who has been out there knows) has been dwindling away in recent years. Unfortunately Frederick County chose not to put in an agricultural reserve zone (comparable to the one in Montgomery County) to preserve the rural heritage of southern Frederick. There was quite a bit of goings-on about this some years ago, having to do with preserving the view from Sugar Loaf. Preservation lost, development won. Every time Barry and I go out to this area we feel it is doomed (it is our CBC area). There are almost no dairy herds left and houses are sprouting willy-nilly all over the landscape, the worse sort of land-use planning. There are still good field areas to the west (Cap Stine) although who knows how long they will stay around. The area has changed so much since I first started going out, it is depressing -- but it is not the only rural area in Maryland being "sprawled" out of existence. Luckily Lily Pons Water Gardens are still there and becoming even more birder-friendly, they are working with Frederick MOS on this. So all is not gloom and doom... Gail Mackiernan Silver Spring, MD on 02/10/2004 11:21 AM, Les Eastman at les@BIRDTREKS.COM wrote: > Hey, let's all throw in our pennies and we should have that 2 million > dollars (conservative estimate ?) in no time. > > Unfortunately, those are the economics these days. No one can afford > to buy these tracks except developers. Another farmer can't afford to > buy it because he would never recoup his investment. Even if a farmer > never sells his land, when he dies, his heirs are assessed taxes for > that 2 million dollar value, almost guaranteeing that it will be sold > to developers at that time. > > Les > > =========== > Les Eastman > mailto:les@birdtreks.com > Havre de Grace, MD > > The eagle looked down on the river below > And he wrapped his wings round him and he fell like a stone And the > big salmon fought but the talons held true And he shuddered as the > world turned from silver to blue Steve Earle > > > Denise Ryan wrote: >> Unless some bird-loving person tried to buy the property and not >> build on it. It is a long shot, but I thought I'd throw that >> suggestion out there. >> >> Denise Ryan >> Washington, DC >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Maryland Birds & Birding [mailto:MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM] >> On Behalf Of Rick Sussman >> Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 7:56 AM >> To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM >> Subject: [MDOSPREY] Oland Rd. lappies >> >> >> Hi all, >> Some business took me to Frederick yesterday morning, and on my way >> home I decided to stop on Oland Rd. to see if the Lapland Longspurs >> were still around. There is a huge flock of Horned Larks still >> feeding in a manured field along the road (the site of the famous >> Snowy Owl in 2000). There were numerous lappies in the flock, giving >> me adequate looks through the scope. Many of the larks actually came >> onto the road to feed (?) briefly before flying back into the fields. >> There wasn't a lot of traffic, but the road edge is still mostly snow >> and ice so parking was tricky. Also present was a flyby Harrier and a >> small flock of Tundra Swans in the same field. No Peregrine. No >> Pipit, no Snow Buntings (while I was there) that I saw. >> >> A word of note; while I was there a crew of construction workers were >> erecting a large sign at the intersection of Rt 85 and Oland Rd. (I >> think) informing that the site is for sale by a realtor, some >> hundrend and eighty acres or so. Another sign was at the other end of >> Oland Rd. at the intersection with New Design Rd. So get up and see >> these birds, as the site may be houses by next winter... >> >> This is also one of the best fields for Upland Sandpipers... >> >> >> Rick Sussman >> Ashton,MD >> warblerick@aol.com >> >> ===================================================================== >> == >> To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with >> the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey >> ======================================================================= >> >> ===================================================================== >> == >> To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com >> with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey >> ======================================================================= >> >> > > ====================================================================== > = > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================