This area has long ben an anomaly in PG Co, a rural hold-out surrounded by
suburbia far and wide in all directions (exc Andrews AFB; that boundary is
patrolled, btw).
I understand that all the properties were tied together in some way, perhaps a
partnership. So when it was finally sold to developers, it all went at once, and
abandoned. Enjoy it while you can.
Fred Fallon
Huntingtown
________________________________
From: Jeff Shenot <>
To:
Sent: Sun, June 26, 2011 7:59:35 AM
Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Prince George's County Dickcissels
That is very interesting, great find! I was going to post but was too busy
until now, that I did the same thing last Tuesday eve, looking for Dickcissels
etc on my way home from work. Except I didn't see or hear any! I spent an hour
looking along the same road, from about 0.4 mile south of Westphalia Rd, south
to where Melwood Rd's fields end (~0.9 miles). I also looked on Moores Way
(adjacent to Melwood) plus a couple other promising areas near Upper Marlboro
(large old fields on private land/farm lanes). Weather was warm but perfect. I
found no Dickcissels, but had plenty of field birds including 5 meadowlarks and
several Grasshopper Sparrows (both are getting very scarce in PG now), plus an
abundance of the usuals. It's spectacularly nice habitat for PG County, or
anywhere - like taking a step back in time.
My comment here is this is a very beautiful area, or was? It was part of an old
BBS route (Cheltenham, I think) that I did with Danny Bystrak a few years ago,
and it was very different then. We had a Warbling Vireo at the stream crossing
there, which I came back to later and "upgraded" since it was during the
Breeding Bird Atlas. A good find for PG County. I think back in the 90s for a
while one season, Danny told me there was a Henslow's Sparrow on territory there
too. The really weird thing I noticed last week, is THERE WERE NO PEOPLE. The
last timej I checked here was 2 years ago to look for quail, and the houses were
lived in then and the farms were being farmed. Nearly the entire area has been
abandoned now; the houses and farms there are boarded up (many have broken
windows) and I only saw 2 that had people living there. It's a ghost town, very
weird. It's as if the goverment shut it down and moved everyone out. Does
anyone know what is going on there?
If you go to look for Dickcissel (I will today!), be aware that it is a narrow
road that gets a fair amount of traffic (at least during the week), and there is
no shoulder and very few places to pull off.
Cheers-
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD
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