sewage ponds there and at St. Hilaire. We

did add Greater Yellowlegs and Solitary

Sandpiper, both tough to get in late May,

but we arrived at Agassiz 1112 hours behind

schedule. There we found Great Egret and

Sandhill Crane, and we also lucked into a

small wave of needed woods birds, includ-

ing Alder Flycatcher, Gray-cheeked Thrush

and Harris' Sparrow. We headed for Lake

of the Woods at 6:15 p.m. with 178

species, still somehow on a record pace

with almost three hours of daylight left.

On the way to Warroad it started to rain

again, as we were to be plagued with

showers and the resulting premature sunset

for the next couple hours. But Terry spot-

ted the always-difficult Short-eared Owl in

the rain as we sped on to Lake of the

Woods, and at Warroad we rounded out

our list of needed water birds and were

thoroughly amazed as a flock of 20 Red

Knots flew in among them. We then tenta-

tively headed east towards Pine-Curry Is-

land, but decided not to make the drive

since the rain showers were still with us,

and it looked particularly black in that di-

rection. But between showers just east of

Warroad we chanced upon a needed Cape

May Warbler and heard a pheasant which

had thus far eluded us. Back at Warroad

we waited out the rain with 189 species

now to our credit, and as it got dark at

8:45 we headed for the bog north of

Roseau where we knew we could count on

woodcock and Whip-poor-will. Although

we failed to spot a hoped-for Great Gray

Owl just south of the border on Hwy. 310,

Paul and Terry were the first to hear a to-

tally unexpected Boreal Owl calling from

the bog! This was a long way from Cook

Co. where one might not be so surprised

to hear one, but that's what it was: quite

a fancy species for number 192 for the

day.

As pleased as we were with our record

192, we still wonder if 200 was possible

that day. After all, we lost some time at

dawn and in the evening due to rain, a

strong wind was with us almost all day,

and the colder than normal spring delayed

the arrival of many birds we missed. On

any given Big Day there will always be

some "easy" species missed; in 1983 if we

could have seen the likes of Broad-winged

Hawk, Gray Partridge, Ruby-throated

Hummingbird, Red-headed Woodpecker,

Olive-sided Flycatcher, Eastern Wood-

Pewee, Cedar Waxwing, Northern Water-

thrush, Indigo Bunting, Eastern Meadow-

lark and/or a few others, our dream of 200

species would have been realized.

As a final note, Minnesota's Big Day re-

cord of 192 now ranks our state sixth

among all the states/Canadian provinces;

only California (235), Texas (234),

Alabama (202), Manitoba (194) and New

Jersey ( 194) have recorded better Big

Days. Although the 230 species range is

impossible on a Minnesota Big Day, we

will certainly try to reach 200 or more in

May of 1984. 9735 North Shore Dr.,

Duluth , MN 55804

PROCEEDINGS OF THE MINNESOTA

ORNITHOLOGICAL RECORDS COMMITTEE

by Kim R. Eckert, M.O.R.C. Secretary

Before listing the votes on records dur-

ing the last half of 1983, a report on a few

of the items discussed at a Dec. 4, 1983

meeting of the Committee follows.

I) A discussion on "second-hand" re-

cords (i.e., those records in which the de-

tails submitted to M.O.R.C. are written by

someone other than the observer) reaf-

Spring 1984

17