Proceedings of the Minnesota Ornithological

Records Committee

Kim R. Eckert

T here was a meeting of the Committee

on 5 December 1993, and, among the

items on the agenda, the following deci-

sions were reached:

• It was decided to proceed with the

publication of the Checklist of the Birds of

Minnesota without waiting for the publica-

tion of the seventh edition of the American

Ornithologists' Union's checklist, tenta-

tively scheduled for later in 1994.

The Minnesota list was distributed with

the Winter 1993 issue of The Loon, and it

uses the nomenclature, sequence, and tax-

onomy of the sixth edition of the A.O.U.

checklist and its supplements. One of these

supplements, the 39th, scheduled for publi-

cation in the July 1993 issue of The Auk,

includes three name changes affecting the

Minnesota list:

Green-backed Heron

becomes

Green Heron

Lesser Golden-Plover

becomes

American Golden-Plover

Rosy Finch

becomes

Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch.

(Also note that one error appears in the

new Minnesota Checklist: an asterisk indi-

cating a confirmed breeding record was in-

cluded for Kentucky Warbler; however, the

Committee has not yet accepted any breed-

ing records for this species.)

• Because of the delay in producing the

new Minnesota checklist (normally, it

would have appeared with the Spring 1993

issue of The Loon) , it was necessary to dis-

cuss the status of two species whose situa-

tion had changed since the December 1992

meeting of the Committee (see The Loon

65:33). Accordingly, it was decided to keep

Ruff on the Casual list; and Burrowing Owl,

formerly Regular, is now considered Ca-

sual.

• It was decided that votes on recircu-

lated records and on potential first state

records will no longer be taken by mail as

other records are; these will now be held for

discussion and vote at the next meeting of

the Committee.

• A Common Ground-Dove record from

Duluth on 16 October 1993 was discussed

and found Acceptable as a first state record

on a 10-0 vote.

• A second Black-shouldered Kite (now

White-tailed Kite) record from Blooming-

ton on 7 May 1993 (also see The Loon

65:147) was discussed and found Unaccept-

able on a 1-9 vote. Although the description

was convincing enough to be accepted by a

majority of the Committee on earlier votes,

it was decided that a first state record

should have more complete documentation.

There was no description of the dorsal sur-

face of the bird, its relative size was un-

clear, and the distance of the bird from the

observer was not given.

• A photograph record of a possible

Barn Owl from Shorewood, Hennepin Co.

on 9 September 1993 was discussed and

found Unacceptable on a 0-7 vote. The

Spring 1994

43