Date: 11/26/25 10:45 am From: Chuq Von Rospach via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Washington State counties - totem birds
On Nov 26, 2025 at 08:49:21, Tim Brennan via Tweeters <
<tweeters...> wrote:
> If each county in our state had a totem pole with three birds on it...
> what would those birds be?
>
I’ll take a crack at Kitsap. If I were doing a pole for my driveway, it’d
definitely be a Bald Eagle on top with Raven underneath (and as someone who
collects first nations art, I’ve considered it). I expect, though, that
other counties have better challenges for this if we’re restricting things
to one county only, and I say that despite living 5 minutes from the
Seabeck eagle hangout.
For a county-wide pole, the first two birds I’d nominate are Pileated
Woodpecker and Red-Breasted Nuthatch (a species being monitored here in the
county for Audubon’s ongoing Climate Change survey). After that, I think
there are a number of good candidates: Black-capped Chickadee, Stellar’s
Jay, Spotted Towhee, Surf, Black and White-winged Scoter, Marbled Murrelet,
maybe Pigeon Guillemot. Man, so many choices — maybe Purple Martin? Maybe
Barred Owl? Limiting it to three is really tough.
As I think about it, I’m not sure I can there’s an obvious answer to “if
you are looking for this species, you have to bird Kitsap to find it”,
where back in California we had Yellow-billed Magpie as an obvious bird to
go for.
(Sidebar: these kinds of discussions always remind me that “rarity” is very
subjective to a person and locations: many years ago I was out birding
along San Francisco Bay, and I ran into a very nice birder who turned out
to be from Washington, and who really wanted to find Snowy Egrets, a lifer
for her. And a bird that to me, in that location, was very common and easy
to find. I was happy to help her find one, but I’ve always kept that in
mind as a reminder to not ignore the common or “trash” birds because there
will always be someone who really wants to see that species. Except maybe
Starlings… (grin))
chuq
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Chuq Von Rospach (http://www.chuq.me)
Silverdale, Washington
Birder, Nature and Wildlife Photographer
