Hello all, I did a walk through a section of The Battlefield today, 7 APR 99. I began later than I had hoped, at 8:00. I was there until about 10:10. I vistited the area along Groveton Road, an area that I call The Defunct Shopping Center. As the nick-name implies, the area was slated to become a shopping center, small business park, and housing sub-division. Much work was done to prepare for building this area prior to Congress buying the land for the MBNP. What was left behind was a cleared area, a two lane road, fire hydrants and lots of concrete fittings for water runoff. Much of one lane of the road has been covered with dirt piles from else where in the Battlefield. This area is bordered on the south by I-66, the East by Groveton Road, and north and west there is a buffer of forest, and some private housing. There is a stream that runs along the south border, and a couple small ponds within the area. There are various length grasses, small hedgerows, small hills, several little bunkers that were going to be sewers I suspect. In the far west of this section is a bowl that is edged on 4/5 of its sides by mostly mature trees, mixed deciduous and conifers. There is supposedly 14 acres being mitigated for wetlands destroyed by the building of a museum at Dulles Airport, however I believe that this has not started yet. A complete list of all my sightings follows, however there were a couple notable birds seen. One Prarie Warbler was heard singing and then seen. The area where the bird was singing was very suitable habitat for it to breed, thus the bird could stick around. Also, there was a large influx of Thrashers. I counted seven. I was in the same area last Saturday, and there were none. There was one Wild Turkey in a small strip of woods. There were two Eastern Phoebes making restorations to last seasons nest. Notable by their absences were Savannah Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, and Vesper Sparrow, all of which were seen this past weekend. The list: Canada Goose (10) Wood Duck (2) Mallard (7) Turkey Vulture (4) Red-tailed Hawk (1) adult American Kestrel (1) adult male Wild Turkey (1) hen Killdeer (2) Mourning Dove (6) Red-bellied Woodpecker (4) Downy Woodpecker (3) Northern Flicker (27) Eastern Phoebe (5) 2 repairing nest Blue Jay (11) American Crow (7) Fish Crow (5) Carolina Chickadee (18) Tufted Titmouse (8) White-breasted Nuthatch (1) Carolina Wren (2) Eastern Bluebird (6) Hermit Thrush (1) American Robin (24) Northern Mockingbird (8) Brown Thrasher (7) Cedar Waxwing (40) European Starling (25) Yellow-rumped Warbler (26) Pine Warbler (1) Prarie Warbler (1) Palm Warbler (1) Eastern Jim Northern Cardinal (4) Eastern Towhee (9) Chipping Sparrow (2) Field Sparrow (19) Song Sparrow (7) Swamp Sparrow (1) on a branch singing White-throated Sparrow (1) Dark-eyed Junco (2) Red-winged Blackbird (41) Eastern Meadowlark (1) Rusty Blackbird (5) Common Grackle (6) Brown-headed Cowbird (12) House Finch (2) American Goldfinch (24) Todd Day BlkVulture@aol.com Jeffersonton, VA