of ice in the shipping lanes. Indeed, the

arrival of a Gyrfalcon has often been sig-

nalled by the "disappearance" of territo-

rial owls I bad been observing over the

course of the winter. They were sti ll on

their territories , but much harder to find.

When not constrained to defend a ter-

ritO!y by the presence of neighboring

owls, Snowy Owls will roost considerable

distances from their hunting centers. This

past winter 0999-2000) an adult female

Peregrine had a roosting and activity cen-

ter on the Blatnik bridge. There were

only two owls wintering in the harbor, an

adult female (T67, a return from the pre-

vious winter) and an immature male

(T68). Both owls were often observed

roosting up to three miles away from

their hunting areas near the Blatnik

bridge, considerably farther than normal.

They also remained inactive much later

than normal, rarely moving before almost

complete darkness.

Literature Cited

Cade , T. ]. 1960. Ecology of the Peregrine

and Gyrfalcon populations in Alaska.

Univ. Calif Pub!. Zoo!. 63:151-290.

Clum , N. ]. , and T. ]. Cade. 1994. Gyrfal-

con (Falco rusticolus). In The Birds of

North America, No. 114 (A. Poole and

F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Acad-

emy of Natural Sciences; Washington,

D.C. The American Ornithologists'

Union. 28 pp.

Evans, D. L. 1980. Vocalizations and terri-

torial behavior of wintering Snowy

Owls. American Birds 34:748-749.

Forbush, E. H. 1927. Birds of Massachu-

setts and other New England states.

Vol. 2. Betwick and Smith Co.,

Norwood, Mass.

Palmer, R. S. 1988. Handbook of North

American Birds, Vol. 5. Diurnal Rap-

tors, Part 2. Yale University Press , New

Haven. 465 pp.

Pitelka, F. A., P. Q. Tomich , and G. W.

Treichel. 1955. Ecological relations of

jaegers and owls as lemming predators

near Barrow, Alaska . Ecol. Monogr.

25:85-117.

Steenhof, K. 1998. Prairie Falcon (Falco

mexicanus). In The Birds of North

America, No. 346 (A. Poole and F.

Gill, Eds.) . The Birds of ortb

America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA. 28 pp.

Sutton, G. M. , and D. F. Parmalee. 1955.

The Peregrine Falcon on Baffin Island.

Bird-Banding 26:147-152.

Watson, A. 1957. The behaviour, breed-

ing, and food-ecology of the Snowy

Owl Nyctea scandiaca. Ibis 99:419-

462.

2928 Greysolon Rd., Duluth, MN

55812.

Proceedings of the Minnesota

Ornithological Records Committee

Kim R. Eckert, M .O.R.C. Chairman

The two most recent meetings of the

Committee were he ld on 29 August

and 5 December 1999. In atten-

dance at one or both of these meetings

were the other Committee members:

Renner Anderson (alternate member),

Karl Bardon, Paul Budde 0999 alternate

and regular member starting in 2000 re-

placing Dick Ruhme) , Philip Chu (alter-

nate starting in 2000 replacing Paul

Budde), Bruce Fall, Anthony Hertzel, Kim

Risen (alternate), Dick Ruhme (whose

Spring 2000

39