As preparations for the first Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas move ahead with online data entry capability with Cornell's website scheduled for early March, it behooves us not to overlook any existing opportunities for documenting breeding birds. Safe dates (those dates that encompass the period when sightings/auditory reports most likely indicate a territorial bird) are already operative for a handful of species. Most obvious is the Great Horned Owl (nestlings already reported in Wisconsin) hoooose safe dates are 1/20 to 7/1. Rock Pigeon and the two crossbills could also be breeding now. Anyone finding these species (auditory reports of a Great Horned Owl in potential breeding habitat indicate at least a "possible" please keep careful notes on where you found them so you can enter the data once the website is activated. Although the atlas' priority blocks are the NE 9 square miles of a township (3x3 miles) reports from non-priority blocks are welcome as well. I usually just annotate my DeLorme atlas or county atlas with an "x" and the bird's 4-letter code but any method will work as long as you can put a mark on the map for the approximate location (which 9 square mile block of a township--NE, SE, SW, or NW). Eastern Screech-owl safe dates begin in March with 3/20 to 8/10 safe dates. Most White-winged Crossbills seem to have moved or perhaps they are nesting and have become rather quiet. It would be nice to tally some breeding records for this irregular species during this major invasion year. Happy atlasing. Bob Russell ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
