Proceedings of the Minnesota

Ornithological Records Committee

Kim R. Eckert

Before listing the records voted on during

the last half of 1988, there were several topics

of discussion at our 4 December 1988 meet-

ing which I have summarized below.

1) It was decided that records of casuals

and accidentals documented with a photo-

graph, specimen or sound recording would

be voted on from now on; formerly, such

records supported by "clearly identifiable"

photos , specimens or recordings were ac-

cepted without a vote.

2) Bill Pieper moved out of state during

1988 and he decided to resign from the Com-

mittee. He was replaced by alternate member

Terry Savaloja, and Terry's former place as

an alternate has not yet been filled at the time

of this writing (Tom Tustison had been named

to fill this vacancy, but unfortunately he too

has recently moved out of state) .

3) Although House Finch is still officially

listed as a Casual species on the state list,

there have been so many records in recent

months, especially in the Twin Cities , it was

decided that a vote is no longer needed on

all records . It will be up to the discretion of

the Chairman to decide which records will

still require documentation and/or a vote; this

decision will depend on the experience of the

observers and the location of the observation,

with records in western and northern Min-

nesota tending to require a vote more often .

4) Minnesota's three Acceptable Anhinga

records were discussed , and it was decided

a new vote should be taken on all three re-

cords, especially after an observer involved

in one of the records indicated he felt his

record should be withdrawn. As discussed

below, all three records were found Unaccept-

able, and the species has now been removed

from the Minnesota list. The official list now

stands at 403 species after the deletions of

Anhinga and Mountain Plover and the addi-

tion of Magnificent Frigatebird (listed below

under Acceptable records).

5) The identification of Clark's Grebe was

discussed, since some doubt remains about

the validity and variation of some of the field

marks. It was decided to request additional

input from out-of-state "experts" on the 11

possible Minnesota Clark's Grebe records

(four of these have been voted on and are

currently Unnacceptable , three have been

voted Acceptable, and four have not yet been

voted on by the Committee) . After these ex-

pert opinions have been received, some re-

cords may be reconsidered, and an article in

The Loon will update the identification and

Minnesota status of this species .

6) The identification and Minnesota status

of another problem species, the Western

Sandpiper, was also discussed. Although this

species is currently recognized as Regular on

the Minnesota list, its true status and relative

abundance is unknown - it may prove to be

only Casual - primarily because other

species are often misidentified as Westerns,

because so few sight records have been satis-

factorily documented, and because, at the

time of this writing, there are no known West-

em Sandpiper photos or specimens taken in

Minnesota. As a result, until this species'

status becomes clarified, all Western

Sandpiper records must be documented by

the observers and voted on by the Committee.

Also, if anyone knows of any past photo-

graphic or specimen records of Western

Sandpiper in Minnesota, they are asked to

submit these records to the Committee.

When identifying a sandpiper suspected of

being a Western. please note the following:

-Although Western Sandpipers in breed-

ing or alternate plumage should be obvious

and pose little difficulty, and birds in Min-

nesota in winter or basic plumage can cause

some confusion , most of the problems in-

volves juvenile "peeps" seen in Minnesota

during fall migration.

-Juvenile Semipalmated Sandpipers are

often misidentified as Westerns because they

may have rusty feather edges on the scapu-

lars , back or tertials, and because female

Semipalmateds can have bills which overlap

the length and "drooping" shape of the West-

em.

-Juvenile Least Sandpipers are also easily

misidentified as Westerns; they also have ob-

10 The Loon Vol. 61