Yesterday there was a ruckus of robins in the bitter cherry trees along the
road. There were a couple dozen birds and they were louder than typical with
lots of sharp squawks. I walked over for a better view and watched a robin
flying up to a branch that held another robin. To my surprise, the sitting
robin hopped on the branch and used its wing to smack the approaching bird,
which fell ten feet before recovering and finally landing on the ground.
Whoa, who would've thought robins would rival world wide wrestling? There
were many more belligerent wing and pecking incidents accompanied by lots of
squawking. I have never seen Robins so belligerent. Much later in the
afternoon I came upon a Robin not far from the cherries who was perched at
an odd angle. The birds eyes were closed and it was clearly leaning to the
right. It fluttered its eyes, straightened up, then closed its eyes and
slowly, slowly started tilting to the left. There were many cherries on the
road and the whole area smelled like liqueur. I popped one of the
translucent fruits into my mouth and it was clearly fermented. I collected 2
cups full of the fruits from the ground and ran them through the foley food
mill, added a bit of sugar and made myself a cocktail. I can not recommend
this as I ended up with horrible painful gas.



Rob Sandelin

Naturalist, Writer, Teacher

Snohomish County

My online <http://share2.esd105.org/rsandelin/Fieldguide/Fieldguide.htm>
field guide