[TN-Bird] Re: "Boozed-up birds" in news in Memphis
- From: Dthomp2669@xxxxxxx
- To: dkirschke@xxxxxxxxx, tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 16:08:46 EST
In a message dated 3/6/2009 12:14:54 PM Pacific Standard Time,
dkirschke@xxxxxxxxx writes:
I heard about this last week but did not know what to think (see newpaper
report below). Can anyone confirm this phenomenon?
David Kirschke
Nashville, TN
I heard about the drunken birds in Memphis. It reminded me of the time I was
in the Hill Country of Texas when literally thousands of cedar waxwings were
totally "looped" from eating fermented juniper berries (Pure gin???) after a
major freeze and were flying into cars on the highway where they were killed.
The road was covered with their bodies. I drove into a roadside park and
found many on the ground, sleeping it off. In California, I saw hundreds of
robins feeding on frozen then fermented currents where they dropped out of
trees
onto the hood and trunk of my car. I removed them and put them in the shade.
In
Florida where I lived, the robins often ate Brazilian pepper berries which
had been frozen and fermented. They'd fall out on the ground in my front yard,
and I would go to pick them up and move them into the shade. After they
sobered up, they'd stagger around until they got enough equilibrium back to fly
off
to roost. At home in Central Florida, red-bellied woodpeckers would peck
holes into recently frozen oranges which had fermented on our trees with the
same
result. A few of them actually "bit the dust" in our grove only to recover
and fly off later.
Yes, our feathered friends DO get drunk on frozen and fermented fruit. I've
seen it happen many times.
Dee Thompson
Nashville, Davidson County, TN
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