Pesky birds!

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Fruit is ripening but the birds are trying to get them before we do. The plums are coming on nicely, but then I noticed some of the fruit was being attacked by birds (didn’t think to photo damaged plums).

Victoria plum

Victoria plum

So I asked the kids to make me some scary faces, which we laminated and hung from the tree. These, with some hawk silhouettes, seemed to do the trick.

Scary face
Hawk silhouette
scary face ii

At least I thought they did. But then I noticed the birds had moved on to the apple tree instead. Beauty of Bath is an old (1864) English early apple variety. Personally I find them a bit sharp but the kids love them! They are supposed to get sweeter as the season progresses. Ours have a lovely pink flush to the flesh.  The apple tree now had it’s own collection of scary faces and a couple of old CDs too. We’ll just have to see where the birds move on to next!

Bird damaged apples being visited by wasps and flies
Beauty of Bath

 

 

16 thoughts on “Pesky birds!”

  3. Jane

    Right then, so I will have to get the granddaughters on to this – 4 scary pictures for the damson, 2 miniature pears & the very old apple tree. Fingers crossed at your end.

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  4. bythebriny

    Inventive way to keep the birds off! I’ve heard hanging aluminum pie pans in the trees works as well. The blueberry farmer up the road from me has metallic streamers hanging all along his fence!

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    1. Murtagh's Meadow Post author

      That sounds like good idea if a bit noisy – we have some little Christmas bells I was thinking of using if the scary faces failed!

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    1. Murtagh's Meadow Post author

      Well certainly better than last year – I think because we had those good couple of weeks in June and also because it was a few degrees warmer than last summer, if equally wet!

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