Bird Camp Diaries: June 2008

The Bird Camp Diaries are nothing more than whimsical monthly musings. I hope you find them entertaining, and sometimes thought provoking.

A Quail of a Time

Bird Camp Diaries: June 2008 You'd think living amidst spreading wildfires and on shifting tectonic plates would leave no room to worry about such matters. Well, you'd think...

It probably shouldn't come as a surprise that our western activists have found a new, unnecessary target to find fault in: The California Valley Quail.

Yes, a group has rallied for the ouster of this magnificent bird from its rightful perch as the state's feathered fingerprint - its identity - with calls for the parrot (parrot!!!) as its successor: www.parrotnotquail.com.

This is typical California, trying to show everyone else how smart they are. Why not make the parrot, one of the planet's most intelligent birds, the new state symbol. Yet this is the same state that can't settle on a name for a professional baseball team (California/Los Angeles/Anaheim Angels). The same state that birthed Paris Hilton a career. And the same state that elected an Austrian bodybuilding cyborg assassin as its governor. Yes, why don't we trust this state to replace a perfectly good game bird with one that's most associated with unsavory swashbucklers...

Don't think for a moment this is somebody else's problem. Californians could set a very dangerous precedent. What's next, the state's 58 elected U.S. representatives introducing a bill to make the turkey our national bird? Hey, I'm all for turkey, right between the stuffing and mashed potatoes.

Story by Anthony Hauck
PF/QF Public Relations Specialist

If you have story ideas, dog photos, pre-1980 hunting photos and requests for future On The Wing consideration, please send correspondence to ahauck@pheasantsforever.org.

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