I agree that budgetary concerns should put a new state bird on hold for
now. At the same time, I hope that particular reason does not wind up
killing some important but controversial bill.

The problem with swifts is, I believe, that the average citizen wouldn't
know the difference between a swift and a swallow. For a state bird, I
think John Q. Public needs to be able to identify with it, or maybe just
be able identify the species. :-)

Scott Downes wrote:
> 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 <mailto:downess at charter.net>
> Yakima WA
>
>
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Michael Brown
Puyallup, Washington

"...I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?"

-Aldo Leopold, " A Sand County Almanac"