Hello Minnesota Birders- I've been out of Minnesota for a while, now, much to my regret. In that time, my father, John Ellis of Saint Paul, has graduated from interested amateur to what I would call a serious amateur. In 2004, I believe, he did a Big Year in Minnesota and broke 300 species, hitting 305 (I think).
In 2007 he tried again, planning on breaking his personal best. In fact, as he is much too modest to tell you all, he did much better than that. Despite missing Long-eared Owl, White-eyed Vireo, Parasitic and Pomarine Jaegers (who gets Long-tailed and not the others???), Ross's Gull, Boreal Owl and a few others (most of them casuals and accidentals), he toted up 327 species of birds sighted, which I believes ties him for third highest Big Year total. Trust me, he did not intend to do this well. I think he was shooting for 310 or so. But when the birds in a state are as good as they were in Minnesota this year, it's hard not to keep looking, even when you've already hit your goal. Though he doesn't think so, I felt it was worth giving him a little public recognition for his hard effort and amazing total for the year. I'm sure he'll be quite embarrassed that I've done this, but it's worth pointing out that he couldn't have done it without all the timely postings that so many people make to this list. Here's to another amazing year of birding for Minnesota, though I think my dad will be taking a bit of a break from it this year. Congrats Dad. Sorry about the Ross's Gull, but thanks for coming to my defense. Jesse Ellis -- Jesse Ellis, Ph. D. candidate Neurobiology and Behavior jme29 at cornell.edu 111 Mudd Hall Cornell University Ithaca, 14853
