The driver was sober. The bird he hit may have been under the influence. A California brown pelican flew through the windshield of a motorist on the Pacific Coast Highway in Orange County Thursday, and wildlife officials said the bird was probably intoxicated by a chemical in the water.
A few hours earlier, some beachgoers had seen her in a dive.
Though toxicology tests take several weeks, the odd bird behavior was likely the result of poisoning from domoic acid, which has been found in the ocean in the area, said Lisa Birkle, assistant wildlife director at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach.
Birds can be poisoned through eating algae tainted by the acid.
The driver was not hurt. The pelican needed surgery for a broken foot, and also had a gash on its pouch.
"She's hanging in there," Birkle said.
Her convalescence will give her the opportunity to reflect the consequences of her actions. However, she could just offer the convenient excuse that "All the birds are doing it!"
The Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center has received 16 calls of strange bird behavior in the past week, and was holding three other birds found disoriented and wandering through yards and in streets.
Has anyone posted bail for them?
It's hard enough trying to save birds from pollution and habitat destruction. Now we have to save them from themselves.
Of course, every generation has struggled with these problems.
Domoic acid poisoning was the most likely cause of a 1961 invasion of thousands of frantic seabirds in Northern California that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds."
Those birds flew into buildings and pecked several humans..
Perhaps there's a movie in this, too, something along the lines of an Afterschool Special. It should be screened in every nest.
Tags: Birds; Nature
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