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<BR>& Hi All, May 7, 2008 I wonder if an adrenalin effect is involved here also (I assume birds produce it); i.e. fear of not finding a place to land leading to high adrenalin and extreme ability to do work, relief at finding a place to land leading to low adrenalin, power down and power off. It is the ultimate performance enhancing drug. Yt, Dave Webster, Kentville Laviolette, Lance (EXP) wrote: > Paul S. Boyer wrote: > > > > >Why do the birds which land on the boat often fall into the water? > > >He hopped around catching various gnats, at times coming close to > us, showing no fear, and acting in good > > >health. .... I have never read such a thing, and cannot guess why > a restful stopover should have hurt that warbler. > > > > The long and the short of it Paul is that these birds have probably > reached a metabolic point of no return. Once a migrating bird's fat > reserve is gone it begins to metabolize muscle protein. If they can't > land to replenish their reserves or too much muscle is metabolized > they may simply be beyond the point of recovery if they finally do > land on dry land. Helene Van Doninck of the Cobequid Wildlife > Rehabilitation Centre and the list's 'resident' veterinarian may > have more insight on this. > > > > I don't think the stopover hurt the bird in your example, rather I > think that it had reached the point where the food it managed to catch > on the boat was not sufficient to keep it alive. > > > > As far as birds falling into the water once they have landed on the > boat go, they land on the boat because they have to (running out of > energy), they leave because flying away is a response to the danger > they detect (people) , and they fall into the water because they no > longer have the energy to sustain the flight. > > > > All the best, > > > > Lance > > =========================== > Lance Laviolette > Glen Robertson, Ontario > lance.laviolette@lmco.com > =========================== >
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