Subject: [Tweeters] re: New State Bird
Date: Feb 7 20:11:29 2011
From: Scott Downes - downess at charter.net


Tweets,
I'll admit that the goldfinch doesn't scream Washington State, but we have plenty of them here and they are enjoyed by just about every region of Washington. I am also quite upset that while it may be fun to pursue such things, right now isn't the time or the place to do so. State budgets have become so bad that there are now mandatory furloughs in most state agencies resulting in about 10 unpaid days off a year. This is due to the dire budget problems of the State. As the State is so tapped on resources currently, I think it sends a very bad message to all of the State workers who are essentially getting pay cuts (furloughs are same as pay cuts really) that such a bill is being debated while agency budgets get hacked by substantial amounts. I think its a worthy goal for us to debate such a State bird and perhaps when the time is right (later) to encourage action, but I beg of people to not encourage such things now (rather encourage our reps to not pursue their time with this currently) until state budgets are better off.

I think the swifts (Black and Vaux's) are good birds to consider, but also think that two birds along the lines of Steller's Jay (NW specialties) would be Chestnut-backed Chickadee and Townsend's warbler.

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA