Birds Eat Fermented Fruit, Fly Drunk

wsmv.com ^

[fallingwater]

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Some drunks got out of hand near Beale Street in Memphis, but instead of barflies it was birds intoxicated from eating fermented fruit.

The Health Department investigated this week after receiving calls about dead and floundering birds, cedar waxwings to be exact. The birds were crashing into buildings in the Peabody Place area.

An investigator told The Commercial Appeal he traced the problem to berries from nearby holly trees. Recent freezes ruptured berry cells, allowing the wild yeast to convert sugars into alcohol.

The birds apparently got tipsy from consuming the fermented berries.

Health officials said they don't how many birds died from flying intoxicated.

[Othniel]

My family lived in the migratory pattern of cedar waxwings when I was a kid. They loved to munch on the red berries of our pyracantha bush (red berries, thorns, oval-shaped leaves). Some kept diving at the windows, stunning themselves on impact, getting up, wobbling 'round a bit, then flapping off. We figured they were a little bombed.

[cydcharisse]

My road was littered with car-hit and staggering robins a few years ago. Lots of wild grapes grow in my semi-rural area, and they must have got into quite a parcel of grapes.

They were amusing, but I hated seeing them flying into things they’d normally easily avoid.

[WildcatClan]

I saw some little nuthatches eating Morning Glory seeds this fall. I thought, “you little fellas are gonna be in super-freak-out mode.” They were walking around on the ground like they were marching. This one little guy kept getting on the fence post and then falling, hanging upside down for a while only to right himself and start all over.

The ones who tried to fly did very well and I saw no evidence they were having any difficulties. Flying was easy, it was the landing part that seemed to be giving them trouble. They would consistently misjudge the branch or whatever it was they were attempting to land on. They would overshoot branches sometimes and others they would run directly into the branch. I started to feel a little guilty laughing at birds on acid and went inside. :)

[Tainan]

“Heavenly Blue”...ahhh the memories....:)

[WildcatClan]

Heh :)

[GoLightly]

Birds crashing into my front picture window after eating fermented crab apples were an annual spring tradition in my last home. They were usually so loopy, the impact would knock ‘em out for a few minutes & they’d soon stagger to their feet, gain back some of their senses & fly back into one of the crab apple trees to sleep it off.

[SIDENET]

The ones who tried to fly did very well and I saw no evidence they were having any difficulties. Flying was easy, it was the landing part that seemed to be giving them trouble.

That's why they call it TRIPPING.

LOL.

[Tainan]

and "Pearly Gates" was the other one MG type.

The name flashed back to me 36 yrs later...heh heh heh.

[goat granny]

My father (born in 1901) use to talk about when he was a boy there were bounties on certain birds like crows. You could get 1 penny for each one your brought in but it cost a penny for a shot gun shell, so the farm boys would soak grain in whiskey overnight and set it out for the birds. When enough got drunk, one shot gun shell could net you quite a few birds....

[WildcatClan]

The Aztecs used those for various purposes. :) They grow like crazy and choke out my mater plants but my wife loves them and I’ve a feeling the nuthatches have developed an affinity for the seeds. Tasting rainbows and landing on unicorn horns. Like, “tweet,tweet, meow”, dude.

[this_ol_patriot]

I heard of elephants doing this, flying elephants would be nasty.

[A_perfect_lady]

I am the shadow of the waxwing slain
by the false azure in the windowpane...

[mewzilla]

Meanwhile, from across the country....

Science digest | Birds may have been dead drunk

[GoLightly]

Smart kids!

[PalmettoMason]

My father (born in 1901) use to talk about when he was a boy there were bounties on certain birds like crows. You could get 1 penny for each one your brought in but it cost a penny for a shot gun shell, so the farm boys would soak grain in whiskey overnight and set it out for the birds.

LOL.

Down here, bootleg liquor is readily available, and I often buy a quart and flavor it by adding fresh whole cherries or the small India peaches and letting it soak for a few months. Unfortunately, the fruit gets really nasty, and isn't fit to eat, so it gets thrown out.

A couple of years ago, I threw some cherries (about four quarts worth) on the ground just inside the woodline behind my house. About an hour later, I heard a lot of noise out there, and walked out to investigate. It seemed that every crow in South Carolina had found the stash, and was busily eating itself into a drunken stupor. When I approached them, they could only run away, because they couldn't get it together enough to fly. It was pretty funny.

Needless to say, I dispose of the fruit by other means now.

Your Dad's story reminded me of that. Thanks.

[Free Vulcan]

Ahhh, cheap laughs at the animal’s expense are the best...

[goat granny]

He also had a recipe for whiskey cherries that all my son's love and have the recipe for ..it starts with X amount of gin, X amount of a certain whiskey, one lug of cherries and God knows what else and you let it sit for X amount of weeks until there is no liquid left and each cherry is about equivalent to a shot. There is also some rule that on certain days you have to give the jug 3 shakes...those old guys knew things that are a lost art to modern man. He was friends with the sheriff of Sugar Island and they would go spend a week at the cabin and make white lighting (?) When done they hooked the container to the back of the sheriff's boat and spend 30 minutes on the St Mary river (a choppy old river between upper Michigan and Canada) to age the stuff... I just wish I had recorded all the stories he use to tell.

[PalmettoMason]

I just wish I had recorded all the stories he use to tell.

Several years ago, before they passed on, we sat my grandparents down in front of a video camera to tell their life stories. They farmed in South Dakota their entire lives. The stories are amazing.

I recommend that anyone who still has a relative who grew up back in the "old days", get their story on tape, DVD, or whatever... just get it. You will treasure the stories now, but you will treasure it even more when they are gone.

[Designer]

"The birds were crashing into buildings..

"Here, hold ma' berry an' watch this!"