There is nothing regional about a Great Blue Heron that says "Washington" or even "Pacific Northwest", there isn't a state they are not found in. How about considering a species that was first discovered in the State, like the Mountain Quail (Lewis & Clark at Washougal in 1806) or Tundra Swan also found near there by them. And there is a long list of birds first identified here by John Kirk Townsend during his 1834 journey and stay at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River. These birds include Western Bluebird, Townsend's Solitaire, Winter Wren, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Varied Thrush and MacGillivray's Warbler plus others I am not remembering off of the top of my head. Wilson Cady
Skamania County, WA


---------- Original Message ----------
From: vogelfreund at comcast.net
To: Pete Fahey <peterfahey at comcast.net>
Cc: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Great Blue Heron-NEW WA State bird?
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2011 18:22:42 +0000 (UTC)


Well, the Great Blue Heron would be nice, I suppose. But having spent my teen years in Florida with several more exotic-looking herons, egrets, spoonbill, Ibises, et al., I'm just not all that impressed. The Northern Spotted Owl would be more appropriate to represent the original Washington environment that has been largely destroyed by "civilization."

Phil Hotlen
Bellingham, WA
----------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pete Fahey" <peterfahey at comcast.net>
To: "Ian Paulsen" <birdbooker at zipcon.net>, tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Sunday, February 6, 2011 6:35:56 PM
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] Great Blue Heron-NEW WA State bird?

They ought to name the "Assembly" Loon. For god's sake, don't they have
anything more important to do?

Pete Fahey
Issaquah, WA


-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Ian Paulsen
Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2011 5:42 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Great Blue Heron-NEW WA State bird?

HI ALL:
House Bill 1817 was introduced last week to make the Great Blue Heron our
NEW and third state bird:

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2011-12/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/18
17.pdf

Our first state bird was the Western Meadowlark which was replaced with
the American (Willow) Goldfinch.

sincerely
--

Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
Visit my BIRDBOOKER REPORT blog here:
http://birdbookerreport.blogspot.com/
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