Happy 4th of July!!

It's midway through the year, can you believe it!?! From the freezing cold and snowy start in January to heavy rains and humidity in June. What a 2014 it has been. "We Believe that We Will Win"

Which three presidents died on the Fourth of July?
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. Adams, the second president, and Jefferson, the third president, both died on the same day in 1826

I have finished up the first half of birding for the year, and have had some really great times. The places I have seen and the people I've been with are truly amazing. Thank you again for allowing me to appreciate the little things in life.

I was going back through my pictures from the Florida trip in March, and remember seeing this bird. But I thought it was something else. A non-countable species. Turns out, this is a countable Common Myna bird.

Common Myna

In 2008, this bird was accepted to the ABA list from the non-countable invasive list. Mostly all are south Florida birds. I saw the Hill Myna(non-countable) in Kendall, FL during the bird run with my grandparents in June of 1990. I still need to blog about that trip and list the life birds I saw. So with the Common Myna, that gives me BigYear2014 #294 for the year.

On July 3rd, I awoke early for the hour drive down below Lancaster, Ohio to Clear Creek Metro Park, or route 116. I was on a chase for up to 4 new FOYs that had been reported in the last week.  I remember coming here often as a kid birding, and getting many of my warbler lifers down here.
Louisiana & Northern Waterthrush in May 89', Mourning Warbler May 90', Yellow-throated April 89', Black-throated Green July 88', Cape May 89', Black-and-White May 88', Cerulean May 89', Northern Parula May 87', Yellow-throated Vireo, Wood Thrush, Henslow's Sparrow, & Acadian empidx., to name a few.

Sub-tropical climate, low hanging clouds & humid

Metro Park

From the reports on ebird.org, I headed up the Hemlock trail, northeast passage up to bridge that doubled back up the hill. There I heard the distinctive calling of Worm-Eating Warbler(foy). I managed to get good views of him calling in the tree down by the creek, but no pictures. Like the KY warbler, they sing then fly. So chasing him down is hard. But the black crown stripes and stripe through eye are easy to identify.  After that, I drove down the road towards the upper road entrance, hill area and birded the Prairie Warbler trail twice, but Blue-Wing warbler there. Still need him the last two years. Gee-sh. On the way back east on the road, I finally heard the distinctive call of the Veery(foy)!! I stopped and played my phone app, and sure enough the Veery flew right above me on the road. I got binoculars on him, but sorry no pictures either. Its hard out there to photo these forest birds. So I gained +2 more new FOYs bringing to a total of BigYear2014 #296.

First Half of 2014 Facts:
4 states visited
296 year birds
20 Life birds -- 552 total

New trips confirmed:
Early Sept.--LasVegas/Henderson NV birding
Mid Oct.--PortTownsend/Edmunds/DiscoveryPark, WA birding

Next up: ???