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The life of waxwings in the cold pre-spring winter is no picnic. All berries have been eaten almost to the last one, only here and there clusters can be found on a lone guelder rose, or some bleated berries on whitebeams. The berries of the Guelder rose have turned sweet after the hard frosts and many a jam cauldron witch knows how to prepare delicious and wholesome jam from them. Tea with Guelder rose berry jam even helps against cold and fever. But the raw berries have one great drawback – they are very watery, and with frost they turn into berry ice. Such ice balls the waxwings must swallow by the fistful even in a hard frost – roughly the weight of the bird every day. You can test for yourself how you will feel in a – 20° C frost if you gulp down a kilo or two of berry sorbet at one go. The waxwings at least after such a feat take on an angry bird look and shiver as if they were about to burst. When they open the beak, steam and the tinkle of ice crystals rise into the atmosphere. 

T.H. Ilves is said to have thought that Estonians should manage much better than the "Angry birds“. Seeing that Estonians are held to be an increasingly often endangered species, we should think more about eugenics. The GME – genetically modified Estonian – might represent the best genes that are available in the animal realm. From the waxwing, cold tolerance genes could be transferred to the GME. Even more needful for an Estonian would be the waxwing’s ability to break down alcohol rapidly – it would mean borrowing the alcohol dehydrogenase as well as acetaldehyde oxydase. And finally the GME could be decorated with a gorgeous head crest.

 

Waxwing