Accessing Winding Brook Turf Farm

[Weston Barker]

Hi all,

Would anyone who has been recently be willing to offer advice on visiting the Winding Brook Turf Farm in Lyman? Any information on where to park, etc. would be much appreciated, as would info on viewing the fields and the birds there. And moreover, are the owners OK with birders being there?

Many thanks,

-Weston

[Charles Duncan]

Hi Weston, and all—

I’ve only birded Winding Brook a few times, beginning last year looking for AGPL.  That time, I asked permission from a worker at the barn who was friendly and waved me in as if it were no biggie at all.  I’ve heard similar from others.  There are several dirt farm roads, each plenty wide to pull off on the edges to scan fields, and you’ll see some slightly larger clearings where you can park (obviously avoiding any with active work going on).  The productive fields change from year-to-year and maybe even day-to-day.  The relatively more visible presence of Killdeer may be the best clue to what’s where.

Pull in from Alfred Street at the Winding Hill farm sign and then turn right at the barn.  In a short distance, there’s a left turn at an old family cemetery (just under the T in “Turf Farm” on the sat-photo).  Today we made that turn (perhaps a bad choice!) and followed the road down to a cleared area some 500-800’ farther along.  We parked there (next to a truck that belonged to a friendly man shooting skeet with his sons) and walked down along the drainage ditch toward the northwest, staying out of the plowed fields.  We scoped the farthest plowed field from there, finding the BBSA at the red pin on the map after being alerted by a LOT of Killdeer.  We never were able to get close to the Buffies, in part bc we we didn’t want to miss a good tide at Basket Island and forced ourselves to leave without exploring further.

A better idea might have been to continue straight at the little cemetery, following the road to the left where it turns near two houses and a horse paddock.  We’ve been told that the owners there don’t seem to mind birders being nearby.  The field with the red pin has now been plowed; it is downhill from the horse paddock area.  (The drainage ditch where we were is the low point, of course, so we were looking up the field toward the birds/pin.)

Hope this helps!

—Charles

Charles D. Duncan

76 Emery Street

Portland, Maine 04102, USA

charles....@gmail.com

207.871.9295

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