Out at Lord Hill Park (Snohomish County) a couple days ago I heard things
falling and thought it was a douglas squirrel dropping cones. It turned out
to be Cedar Waxwings who were feeding on bitter cherry fruits. When the
birds would land on a branch to eat a berry, several would fall to the
ground. While watching them, a movement caught my eye and a chipmunk was on
the ground in a clearing, acting oddly. When I first saw it, it was leaning
sort of to one side. Then it straigtened up, took a few steps, stopped and
leaned way over to one side again. I thought perhaps the poor thing was sick
or injured, and shortly later it leaned so far over it fell onto its side!
It had its eyes closed and was breathing quite hard, so I slipped out of my
shoes, and using the cover of some shrubs I stalked up to quite close. It
did not move. I poked it with a finger and it came upright, then tumbled
over again, stood up, fell over. I backed off wondering what kind of
diseases chipmunks might carry. Then I noticed the smell. I bent down, and
the ground was covered with bitter cherries. Crushing one in my fingers it
smelled like sherry. The cherries were fermented and the chipmunk was cleary
drunk on his ass. I laughed out loud which startled the chipmunk into
staggering a few more steps. I thought I would get some pictures so I went
back to my pack and found it covered with wasps, as I had put it down in a
hurry and apparently put it right ontop of a yellow jacket nest. I was able
to hook my pack with a long stick and drag it out of the realm of the nest,
then a 15 minute walk was enough time for most the wasps to find something
more interesting.

On the return trip I passed by the area and this time several Stellar Jays
were yelling their heads off at each other. There were 7 of them and they
were as loud as Stellar Jays ever get. Goes to show, some people should not
drink I guess. I searched for the chipmunk but it had no doubt crawled off
for a nap. I wonder if chipmunks get hangovers?

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, Teacher
Maltby, WA

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