Potomac

Whelan’s Potomac, a family owned and operated Beer & Wine store, is opening this week at 9812 Falls Road in Potomac Village. “With our onsite bar with 12 fresh beers on tap as well as curated wines by the glass, we can’t wait to share our space with you.” The beer and wine wrote on its social media. “Whether you’re calling in for a pint or grabbing a few 6-packs and bottles of wine to-go, we aim to offer some of the best selections available in the Village”

Whelan’s is owned and operated by Greg Whelan, who brought McGinty’s Public House to 911 Ellsworth Drive in Downtown Silver Spring, and his wife Emma Whalen, who was co-owner of the recently closed Astro Lab Brewing in Silver Spring.

Per Montgomery County: A spectacle of nature in Montgomery County is nearing its summer peak as the vast sunflower fields of the McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area on River Road in Potomac is showing off its best right now. There is no fee or permit required to access the property. The 2,000-acre tract in a mixture of woodlands, fields, wooded bottomland and managed wetland impoundments (green-tree reservoirs). The property shares a common boundary with the National Park Service Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to the south and borders Seneca Creek State Park on the east.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources—Wildlife and Heritage Service plants sunflowers each spring on the McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area. The primary purpose for planting sunflowers on wildlife management areas is to provide a food source for mourning doves, as well as other wildlife species. In addition to mourning doves, sunflowers and sunflower seeds are a favorite food source for a host of other songbirds, mammals and pollinators. Sunflowers require pollination by insects, usually bees, to produce a seed crop. In turn, honey bees and many species of native bees, benefit from the abundant nectar and pollen that sunflowers produce.