I really do love wildlife, but when the cheeky beggars sit in MY cherry tree with their craw crammed with MY cherries, giving ME grief for daring to work in the beds, it's really too much! Didn't get a single cherry last year and this year isn't too promising. And these are PIE cherries for goodness sake. I grow them because one thing I remember from childhood is that the birds left great-grandma's pie cherry tree alone. Not mine! Grumble! I've tried nets, flashy-twirly CD's, flash tape, you name it. It's heartbreaking to watch them all disappear!! I'm seriously sulking here!
Oh, dear! Around here we use old fishing nets with fine mesh. They won't stop the birds totally but greatly minimizes the damage done. Bar sitting up there with a broom, swinging wildly at anything flying I'm not sure what you could do.
Well for some reason the birds left my cherries alone this year but I see the blackbirds eyeing up my blackcurrants. It's always a race when my fruit ripens as to just who makes it to the bushes first. Usually the birds win as I can't see me picking fruit at 3am!!
Have you tried noise when they are all int he tree gorging themselves? And air horn or fire racker would freak them out and might stay away.
wow,, we use the old fishing nets also,, And i can totally relate to the fighting the birds for the fruit..lol. I think gardenmama might have a good idea,, big noise everytime you see them. Might work. Lol,, omg, i have picked berries at 3 am. I am such a geek.
That doesn't count, Biita, it's still blazing daylight there at 3am! No geek alarms going off! OK, maybe I need to trot over to Westport and see if I can snitch a few nets from the tuna fishermen. O I'm suuuure they'll be in a generous mood when they come in, lol! At least they seem to be leaving my raspberries alone... and my peas... but somehow a raspberry-pea pie just isn't the same.
I put cheap dollar store windchimes in the cherry trees, it's hard to say if it helps. Seems like the birds are lazy around here, they grab the ones on the outside, but if I crawl into the middle of the tree, they're untouched.
Maybe THAT is what happened to my cherries!! There were a lot earlier and at last count there were 2 left.
