Today I took Ned Foley and his son Robbie birding at Big Island WA in Marion County and Killdeer Plains WA in Wyandot County. The weather was hot and hotter and we went through plenty of water to stay hydrated. Fortunately the birds cooperated enough to make the day worth the effort. We began at Big Island Wildlife Area where some of the species we located were Bobolink, Eastern Meadowlark, Pied-billed Grebe, Great Egret, Lesser Yellowlegs, Northern Pintail, Hooded Merganser, Willow Flycatcher, Henslow's Sparrow and Dickcissel. We then went to Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area and the day got hotter but some good birds kept our spirits up. A highlight was a stretch lined with cooperative Dickcissels. We pulled over to the side of the road, put the windows down and gazed up at them one by one as the sang in the sunlight. Other Killdeer highlights included many Willow Flycatchers, Horned Larks, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Scarlet Tanager, Orchard Oriole, Pied-billed Grebe, Trumpeter Swan, Bald Eagle, Solitary Sandpiper and Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Our list for the day: Pied-billed Grebe Horned Grebe Great Blue Heron Great Egret Green Heron Turkey Vulture Canada Goose Trumpeter Swan Wood Duck Mallard Northern Pintail Hooded Merganser Bald Eagle Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Sora (Heard only) Killdeer Lesser Yellowlegs Solitary Sandpiper Ring-billed Gull Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo Chimney Swift Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Eastern Wood-Pewee Willow Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Eastern Kingbird American Crow Horned Lark Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Cliff Swallow Barn Swallow Eastern Bluebird American Robin Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher European Starling Yellow Warbler Common Yellowthroat Scarlet Tanager Chipping Sparrow Grasshopper Sparrow (Heard only) Henslow's Sparrow Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Indigo Bunting Dickcissel Bobolink Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Orchard Oriole House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow Charlie Bombaci **************Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today. (http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020) ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]