Subject: [Tweeters] Drunk and disorderly
Date: Sep 6 18:11:07 2012
From: Gary Bletsch - garybletsch at yahoo.com


Dear Rob and Tweeters,
?
This sort of thing?happened to me once in the 1970's. The New York State Office of Cooperative Extension, or some such agency, had put out a little brochure, explaining how to make a sort of "attract-crow" bird feeder. That's the opposite of a scarecrow.
?
You were supposed to make a wooden man, dress him up, and put bird-seed containers on him. You'd leave him outside for a few weeks, and the birds would get accustomed to him, use him as a lunch-counter. Then, one night, you'd go out, take him down, and wash and dry the clothes he'd had on. In the morning, you'd don those clothes.? You'd put bird-seed in your hands and on your hat, and go stand out where Mr. Attract-Crow had been standing.
?
The theory was that the little chickadees would come merrily down from the trees and feed from your hands and the top of your head.
?
One afternoon, though, after my man had been out there a few weeks, I noticed teetering titmice, staggering sparrows, and jinebriated juncoes. I had used the plastic tops of aerosol paint cans to form little seed cups, and had nailed these to Mr. Attract-Crow's hands and head. The cups had filled with water, allowing the millet to sit and soak for quite some time. Sure enough,?it fermented into some sort of nasty beverage, probably not too far off from our ancestors' first accidental home-brew. Dutiful sixteen-year-old that I was, I didn't try any of it.
?
As a postscript, I'll add that I replaced the seed-cups with something that drained better. A few weeks later, I did?try washing and drying the clothes, putting them on,?and standing out there. The birds just stayed up in the tulip-tree, wondering when I'd leave their feeding area and let them get back to breakfast.
?
Yours truly,
?
Gary Bletsch

Gary Bletsch

Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA

garybletsch at yahoo.com

"Nun," sagte ich, "wenn ich ein Taugenichts bin, so ist's gut, so will ich in die Welt gehen, und mein Glueck machen." Und eigentlich war mir das recht lieb, denn es war mir kurz vorher selber eingefallen, auf Reisen zu gehen, da ich die Goldammer, welche im Herbst und Winter immer betruebt an unserm Fenster sang: "Bauer, miet' mich, Bauer, miet' mich!" nun in der schoenen Fruehlingszeit wieder ganz stolz und lustig vom Baume rufen hoerte: "Bauer, behalt' deinen Dienst!"


>________________________________
> From: Rob Sandelin <nwnature1 at gmail.com>
>To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Sent: Thursday, September 6, 2012 9:06 AM
>Subject: [Tweeters] Drunk and disorderly
>
>
>
>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 Rob ins so belligerent. ?Much later in the
afternoon I came upon a Rob in 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.
>?
>RobSandelin
>Naturalist, Writer, Teacher
>SnohomishCounty
>My online
field guide
>?
>_______________________________________________
>Tweeters mailing list
>Tweeters at u.washington.edu
>http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
>
>
>