Bird gone bad

Photo by Terry Brussel

Last Friday, Terry Brussel of Johnson City e-mailed me this lovely photo of a northern cardinal. "I found him lying on his back in the yard near my compost pile," Terry wrote me. "I sobered him up, then released him."

Please share more details, I wrote back.

"I'm not sure what he ate, but you an tell by the stain on his beak that he ate something. I picked him up, and he was somewhat lethargic," Terry recalled in a follow-up e-mail. "I took him in the house and set him on my external hard drive for about one hour. Then I took him back outside, took some photos, and he flew off."

About three years ago, we had pine siskins at our feeders that seemed a bit tipsy. We do have (nonnative, invasive) pyracantha bushes with red berries in our neighborhood. I suspect that Terry's cardinal and our siskins must have imbibed on a few. THIS cardinal's very fortunate that Terry came along when he did!  

Note: Terry later e-mailed and reported that there's no pyracantha around his house. Hmmm....