Posted on 06/24/2006 9:45:51 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The driver was sober. The bird he hit may have been under the influence.
A California brown pelican flew through the windshield of a motorist on the Pacific Coast Highway in Orange County Thursday, and wildlife officials said the bird was probably intoxicated by a chemical in the water.
Though toxicology tests take several weeks, the odd bird behavior was likely the result of poisoning from domoic acid, which has been found in the ocean in the area, said Lisa Birkle, assistant wildlife director at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach.
Birds can be poisoned through eating algae tainted by the acid.
The driver was not hurt. The pelican needed surgery for a broken foot, and also had a gash on its pouch.
"She's hanging in there," Birkle said.
The Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center has received 16 calls of strange bird behavior in the past week, and was holding three other birds found disoriented and wandering through yards and in streets.
Domoic acid poisoning was the most likely cause of a 1961 invasion of thousands of frantic seabirds in Northern California that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds."
Those birds flew into buildings and pecked several humans.
Pelicans have excellent eyesight and they are unlikely to have flown into a car without some kind of intoxication, Birkle said.
Am I the first?!
BUSH'S FAULT!!
"said the bird was probably intoxicated by a chemical in the water."
Wanna bet how long 'til Ted Kennedy gets there?
kinda like the "birdie go splat" story
from our trip to the reunion in pa, huh?
wonder what they serve those highway
birdies in pa? ;)
FRom algae, wow
PondScum Brew
Don't Drink and Fly
He just came from a week long Pelican Rock Fest. He was half deaf!!
musta been some kind of concoction!
this huge bird flew smack into our
windshield while we drove up the
highway to a reunion in pa. all our
son, who was about 4yrs at the time,
could talk about once we got there
was how the "birdie went splat" on
the window. lol!
 |
Okay, let me see . . . Birds attack school kids? Horror. Birds attack family in their living room? Okay, suspense and horror. Birds attack sexy proto-Paris type in a dark attic? Freaky kinky and horror. A drunk pelican in a random motor car? It's just not drama . . . |
A bush the in the hand is worth a goose in the bottom ...
A hand in the bird is worth a bush in the hand?
A bush on a bird worth pellooking into?
The pelican's goose was cooked when it got a drink in the bird.
Any worth pelickin' in public is worth pelicking in privates.
He should get the bill for indecent intoxicated flying in pubic.
"It's the Water"
"The pelican needed surgery for a broken foot, and also had a gash on its pouch."
Fifty years ago, you would have never read the above....
LOL.. I bet that got your son's attention.
This would help explain the Birds movie plot,, a lot of stuff comes together and fermentation happens.
Its a good thing Im not a home brewer.
You should get a fine for FReeping while intoxicated..........
one more thing to keep an eye out for ..
Anthony 'Pelican'o hic ping
uhh, tastes just like chicken.
Nyyaaahh ,, I din't say that.
the pelican was half stewed tho. hate to waste it.
payback for all the fish they eat.. ;-)
How many can can a pelican-can if a pelican could can can-cans?
Gabz is fishin' fer a answer .....
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