[MDOsprey] Cedar waxwing mortalities
stamps@sea-east.com
Fri, 04 Jun 1999 09:09:36 -0400
Norm,
The Cedar Waxwing observation below bring to mind a very similar circumstance
that we were involved with in 1974-75. Our daughter, Daphne, who at that
time was 8-9 years old, found dead Cedar Waxwings at her school. She
picked some of them up and put them in her lunch box and brought them
home. I wrote the following to Fred Scott of Richmond, VA, who at that
time was regional editor for Audubon Field Notes,
"Cedar waxwings were very noticeable in the Salisbury are late
Feb. and most of March. Many (30+) died at a local school where
they ate fermented berries, got intoxicated and flew into windows
and brick walls (honest - we had an autopsy done.)"
The birds were eating the berries from an ornamental planting at the
school. The bushes were planted along a walkway between two sections of
the school. The walkway had glass panels along the length. Most of the
birds were killed as they tried to fly through the glass panels while
swarming around the berried bushes.
Memory fails on the details of the great bird kill of '75, but Gail took
several of the birds to the Univ. of MD extension service here in
Salisbury. They sent the birds for an autopsy to try to figure out what
was going on. We had exactly the same questions that the VA people
express below; were the birds simply killing themselves because of lack
of attention to a local hazard, or was there something else going on?
Gail went to the school and observed a number of the birds on the
ground, some of them some distance from the windows. She was able to
approach and pick up live birds - even ones that had not apparently
collided with the windows.
The only funny part of the story is that the second day Daphne brought
home birds we got a call from the school principal's office wanting to
know if we were aware of the strange behavior of our daughter. They
thought she was putting the birds in her lunch box for a later snack.
She had explained that we were birdbanders and otherwise interested in
birds. The school thought that too convenient a cover story so had to
check further into their deviant student's behavior.
Charlie
P.S. - Don't believe everything you read about what to do about seasickness.
At 06:17 PM 6/3/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Carol Jelich of the Anne Arundel Chapter brings this to my attention and
>I thought y'all might be interested.
>
>Norm
>------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
>From: "Carol Jelich" <jrj_csj@mindspring.com>
>To: "Saunders, Norm" <osprey@ari.net>, <dolesh@aol.com>
>Subject: Cedar waxwing mortalities
>Date sent: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 13:16:22 -0400
>
>This disturbing e-mail was forwarded to me by Britt Slattery of the US Fish
>and Wildlife Service, Chesapeake Bay Field Office. I'm passing it along to
>you for possible MOS interest.
>
>I don't know if this stuff is still planted by the state and counties in Md,
>but it shouldn't be. I'm sure what they're describing is actually Eleagnus
>angustifolia, Russian Olive, and it's listed as a nasty invasive species by
>the Maryland Native Plant Society (even if the birds do love the fruits!)
>____________________________________________________________________________
>___
>-- Carol
>
>From: rick_giovengo@mail.fws.gov
>To: <kegiovengo@aol.com>
>Subject: Cedar Waxwing Mortalities
>
> FYI
>
>____________________________ Forward Header
>__________________________________
>Subject: Cedar Waxwing Mortalities
>Author: Terry Tarr at FWS
>Date: 04/30/1999 11:49 AM
>
>From: Don Patterson AT 5HA-RLE@5HA~MAIN1 on 04/30/99 10:45 AM MDT
>
>To: Terry Tarr/R5/FWS/DOI, George Haas
>
>Subject: Cedar Waxwing Mortalities
>
> ****Please pass this message to SA's, Ecological Services, Refuges
>
> On April 22, Agent Holmes discovered dead birds in the median strip
> of The Downtown Expressway in Richmond, Virginia. Eric recovered
> approximately 145 dead Cedar Waxwings. The birds appeared to have
> been feeding on Elegunes Angustifiola, a shrub, six to fourteen
> foot tall which bears a fleshy, pinkish berry in early Spring.
> This shrub is used by Virginia Department of Transportation as a
> visual, "glare barrier" in Interstate and divided highways in the
> area (median) between opposing lanes.
> On April 28, we returned with VDOT officials to this scene. 16
> more Cedar Waxwings were picked up with 1 Robin and 2 Doves.
> After leaving VDOT, we crossed town and saw the same shrub in the
> median, east of Richmond. We stopped and recovered 132 Cedar
> Waxwing carcasses and 3 Robins.
> On April 29, Al Hundley and I searched another area of about one
> mile on I64 east of Richmond and recovered 71 Cedar Waxwings, 1
> Cardinal, and 1 Robin.
> We will search another area today, April 30.
> Observations yesterday of Cedar Waxwings indicate that they ;simply
> are highly attracted to the shrub and are hit by traffic attempting
> to enter or exit the median. We had at first, thought the berry
> may be an intoxicant rendering the birds more susceptable to
> vehicle collision. We have not ruled that out and lab tests are
> pending. But we now believe the birds are just highly attracted
> during their migration.
>
> VDOT says they plant this shrub "all over the state". We have
> searched maybe 2 miles and have recovered 364 Cedar Waxwings.
> We do not know how widespread the use of this shrub is by other
> states; hence this alert. This appears to be a significant
> mortality issue that is species specific.
>
> SRA Patterson
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>===============
>Norm Saunders
>Colesville, MD
>osprey@ari.net
>