I like this choice !!!!!!!!!! ... I did NOT like the Black Swift
choice because personally I feel a state bird should be accessible to
everyone and to be able to be ID'd by everyone, from kids to adults,
from beginners to experienced birders ...

Lyn
Vancouver, Washington








At 07:53 AM 2/8/2011, Pterodroma at aol.com wrote:
>more thoughts as follow-up to earlier post...
>
>...and furthermore, no other State has adopted the uniquely elegant
>Varied Thrush. Oregon's is Western Meadowlark, a choice which
>strikes me about as unsettling as our current American Goldfinch
>especially in the mountains and wet western lowlands.
>
>So, let's get a Washington Varied Thrush movement going before
>Oregon feels prompted to change it's mind as well. Varied Thrush is
>extraordinarily elegant, widespread, and common enough, yet not too
>common and just subtle, furtive, and mysterious enough as to not be
>seen all that often by most, but most Washingtonians would recognize
>it and most could not help but not be touched when it suddenly
>appears out of the shadows. Afforded a viewing is always a special
>treat no matter whether it's for the first time or how many times
>one sees one, even if the same birds over and over and over all
>winter long. For most of us, late winters in the lowlands, back
>yards, greenbelts, and any Spring / early Summer time hike or walk
>in the woods, mountains, and wilderness, how can anyone not hear or
>ignore it's signature of variable pitched tones ringing from parts
>unseen and not known exactly or even know what that 'noise' is
>exactly. You don't have to see it, you just hear it, you identify
>that 'sound' with place, and that's quite enough to know that you
>are somewhere, some geographic area (Washington) that is truly
>special and just plain spiritual. Right now and as winter ebbs, our
>Varied Thrushes are already tuning up for Spring, always a long
>evolving process, seemingly clumsy and off key at first but
>improving with each passing day, a process that never ceases to
>inspire and lends such good cheer as it evokes an uniquely special
>kind of karma that can't be matched anywhere else.
>
>As a teenager from Missouri on a family trip to northern California
>now many decades ago, the very first Varied Thrush I ever heard were
>those mysterious ringing tones from the dark deep Redwoods of
>northern California. It was yet to be a few years before I ever
>laid eyes on one. I have never forgotten that moment so long ago,
>and yet, that singular moment, even if having to settle for it sight
>unseen, remains just as freshly lodged in my memory and soul as if
>it had happened for the first time just a few seconds ago.
>
>The only other species that evokes similar feelings is the similarly
>possessed Brown-backed Solitare of the western highlands of Mexico
>and Central America where Jim Conrad wrote in a blog of the
>Brown-backed Solitare at dawn
><http://www.backyardnature.net/mexbirds/15yerba_.htm>Borderline
>Cloudforest at Yerba Buena Clinic : "When singing finally ends, the
>landscape suddenly feels empty and less dramatic and meaningful than
>just moments before. The Brown-backed Solitare defines this
>land." This exact same beautiful sentiment could just as easily
>apply to the Varied Thrush in Washington! Varied Thrush is exactly
>the right bird to represent the proud State of Washington.
>
>Sorry for the passion, but, just can't help it. Now, I'm going to
>grab a cup of coffee and go sit out on the back porch for awhile and
>just watch and listen to those Varied Thrushes as they begin to ring
>in a new day and root around in the shadowy shrubbry.
>
>Richard Rowlett
>Bellevue/Eastgate
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Lyn Topinka
http://EnglishRiverWebsite.com
http://ColumbiaRiverImages.com
http://RidgefieldBirds.com