Greetings... There's an election underway to name the official bird of
Butler County MetroParks. They have a list of birds that you can
choose from on their online voting form. The list is not really very
interesting, and according to early results, Northern Cardinal is
leading by a comfortable margin. Here are the top seven leaders so
far:

Northern Cardinal 182

Pileated Woodpecker    114

Great Blue Heron       98

Eastern Screech Owl   95

Wild Turkey                71

Red Tailed Hawk        10

American Robin            8


I humbly propose a write-in candidate for official Butler County
MetroParks bird: Prothonotary Warbler. Unlike the current leader
Northern Cardinal, Prothonotary Warbler is a bird that requires
someone actually leaves his or her home or gets out of the car in
order to see one. Prothonotary Warblers breed at a few of our
MetroParks sites--Gilmore Ponds, Rentschler Forest, Woodsdale, come to
mind; they are "pretty birds" and have a high bunny hugger
factor--right up there with Northern Cardinals though not likely to
surpass Eastern Bluebird; they are migratory birds and anyone reading
this doesn't need another boring lecture about neotropical migrants .
. . I think we could easily out-vote Northern Cardinal and the other
candidates on the MetroParks bird ballot if we got behind Prothonotary
Warbler as a write-in.

Voting is as easy as clicking here and typing in "Prothonotary
Warbler" in the box marked "Other":
http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e5ftm55hgvxyr11m/a01cjgxnxkdj1/questions

Whether you're a Democratic, a Republican, an anarchist, a Marxist,
Maoist or a Tea Party supporter, I think Prothonotary Warbler is a
suitably unoffensive candidate for the official bird of Butler County
MetroParks. True, they make some "life style" choices that many of our
fellow Butler Countians would find appalling, and they have the nasty
habit of coming into our country merely to raise their young before
fleeing back across the southern border at the first sign of a
decrease in daylight (and none of them have ever paid a penny in
taxes) . . . yet I urge you to look beyond such trivial matters and
vote for Prothonotary Warbler.

Voting is as easy as clicking here and typing in "Prothonotary
Warbler" in the box marked "Other":
http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e5ftm55hgvxyr11m/a01cjgxnxkdj1/questions

Vote early and often. Encourage your friends and family to vote. Make
a drinking game of it, if you wish. Let's save Butler County
MetroParks from making a very dull and predictable mascot out of the
Northern Cardinal. I even have a powerful chant that the banders among
you might make use of:

Who do we want?
PROW!
When do we want him?*
NOW!

*= feel free to alternate the masculine pronoun "him" with the
feminine pronoun "her" during your public demonstrations. Our movement
strives for inclusion. Nor do we wish to raise the hackles of
nativists, so, again, don't mention that Prothonotary Warblers only
live in Butler County long enough to raise their young before leaving
the country. There are some among us who cannot abide by such
practices. Yet we need their votes, too, so lie, dissemble,
prevaricate, waffle, fence-sit, as necessary.

As of today, Friday, January 20, two proud citizens have cast their
write-in ballot for Prothonotary Warbler. Join us. Make us a mighty
force.

"Fight the power," brothers and sisters!
---Mike Busam
Butler County, OH