Birds distroy too many plants in my garden!
catstone
garden. A bit of yellow was just barely visible. Having learned from many
previous disasters, I went back to the house to get a protector for this
little beauty (I keep all the little plastic fruitbaskets, that f.ex. cherry
tomatoes get sold in). But I was too late. The beasts were already sitting
in the treebranches waiting! Anyhow, this one had no chance, but all of the
other crocus plants are covered now!
My main problem seem to be crocus flowers, pansies, silver mound and in
spring, almost any fresh looking green leaves on a number of different
flowers. Forget seeding lettuce etc....
I have had some success with these ugly plastic figures, that move, some
coloured plastic strips tied to a stick etc. But these beasts seem to learn
faster every year, that nothing can spoil their meal permanantly!
It happens year-round between nisting season and young birds growing up to
full size!
Now, the strange thing is, that I live on a farm with loads of cats
everywhere, three dogs....
What can I do to keep the birds (ugly big black ones) from eating my plants?
Paul Onstad
Wow, what kind of birds are those? Ravens, crows? I've never known a bird
around here to eat crocus (crocii?) and I have a lot of them....and
birds....including blackbirds.
The only foolproof bird deterrent is netting but that would hardly work for
plants that are to be admired for their appearance.
-Paul
Iris Cohen
is more likely to be insects or rodents.
Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"It is forbidden to live in a town which has no greenery." Jerusalem Talmud,
Kiddushin 4:12.
Julia Green
"catstone" <cats...@attcanada.ca> wrote
The beasts were already sitting
> in the treebranches waiting! Anyhow, this one had no chance, but all of
the
> other crocus plants are covered now!
>
> My main problem seem to be crocus flowers, pansies, silver mound and in
> spring, almost any fresh looking green leaves on a number of different
> flowers. Forget seeding lettuce etc....
>
plants?
Are you sure it's birds that are eating your young plants? I have a problem
with rabbits and deer nibbling at young shoots (mostly bunnies, I think) but
have never noticed birds eating anything except berries and small fruits. I
spray on some Deer Off (made from garlic, hot pepper and eggs) on the young
plants and that helps.
Julia, zone 6b, MD
paghat
iris...@aol.com (Iris Cohen) wrote:
Three respondents to this query so far & each doubts birds are the
problem. I'll be fourth one to note incredulity. I encourage birds with
feeders; we are visited by a huge variety of species; none ate crocus
blossoms or anything of the sort. They will eat the berries off of several
berrying shrubs, & of course if someone has a corn or grain food garden
birds will like those grains, or may go after broadly cast seeds. But eat
up the flowers? I'd have to know the exact species to believe it.
Gardeners mistreat so much wildlife because they don't want to share their
gardens with anything natural, but birds by & large even gardeners
encourage with few complaints. Pigeons & crows are potential nuisance
birds, starlings can be noisy sonzubitches scaring away anything smaller
around the feeders, sapsuckers are potential threats to trees though the
ones visiting us have never caused harm. The only thing the crows try to
harvest off our block are walnuts & chestuts (which they drop from a
height to break open on the road). And the starlings don't stay long
enough at a time to be perpetually scaring off other birds. So even the
nuisance birds are not nuisiances in our case.
There may be some blossom-eating bird out there somewhere, but there sure
aren't any around here.
-paghat
--
"Flowers are commonly badly designed, inartistic in
color, & ill-smelling." -Ambrose Bierce
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl:
http://www.angelfire.com/grrl/paghat/gardenhome.html#top
Tyra Trevellyn
the spring. Using only my yard for an example, and I've seen all this, many
times: house sparrows and house finches will eat buds off the forsythia
branches where they happen to perch. House sparrows will certainly tear bits
of silver mound and other artemisia to use for nesting material....they like
the silvery stuff. Mourning doves, house sparrows, and native sparrows will
eat tiny sprouts in the ground. Starlings (who fortunately only visit my yard
for grubs and nesting material) will sometimes pull at sprigs of herbs to add
to their dried nesting material. And of course almost all seed-eating birds
will raid a seed bed that's shallowly planted.
I try to provide my local birds with plenty of fresh and dried nesting
material, offering it in baskets and brush piles. It limits the damage, which
is really minimal anyway. (I cover the silver mound artemisia until early June
with very unobtrusive netting.) I know I'll lose some of the tiny seedlings
for some plants (sweet alyssum, for example) but there'll be more than enough
that will survive. They don't keep after the plants all summer (but mind you,
I'm not addressing veggie garden issues).
Squirrels and especially groundhogs are the real culprits when there's any
major damage. (Fortunately, there are no deer in the vicinity....yet.)
Best,
Tyra
z6b nj usa
LarFlu
cats...@attcanada.ca says...
> It happens year-round between nisting season and young birds growing up to
> ...What can I do to keep the birds (ugly big black ones) from eating my plants?
>
More than likely they are crows. They will gather plant material for
nesting. I have had two complaints this Spring, one was a number of crows
had nipped off the leaves from a patch of day lilies and another person
stated they had the crows clipped the pansy flowers they had growing in a
whiskey barrel. Not much you can do other than protect the plants with
netting or bird removal. But you will need to see what your local laws
and the protection of crows are before getting yourself into trouble.
--
Lar
Janet Baraclough
from paghatSPA...@netscape.net (paghat) contains these words:
> In article <20020414100443...@mb-fv.aol.com>,
> iris...@aol.com (Iris Cohen) wrote:
> > How do you know it is the birds? Have you seen them attacking your plants? It
> > is more likely to be insects or rodents.
> > Iris,
> > Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
> > "It is forbidden to live in a town which has no greenery." Jerusalem Talmud,
> > Kiddushin 4:12.
> Three respondents to this query so far & each doubts birds are the
> problem. I'll be fourth one to note incredulity.(snip)
I can well believe he has some bird or other that picks yellow
crocus flowers, it's a familiar though unexplained phenomenon in the
UK. Every other colour of crocus is safe, only the yellow ones get
wrecked, and they get torn off or shredded rather than eaten. I've
seen pheasants do it in my own garden, and I know sparrows do in others.
> There may be some blossom-eating bird out there somewhere, but there sure
> aren't any around here.
We have flocks of bullfinches, a native bird, decimating the
unopened flower buds at this time of year in fruit orchards,
ornamental cherries, amelanchier etc. (They don't seem to eat the
buds, just tear them off). They are small and very beautiful
(brilliant pink breast, black hat, black and white wings) and a
declining species; but horribly destructive to commercial fruit growers.
Janet.
BT
"paghat" <paghatSPA...@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:paghatSPAMMERS-DI...@soggy72.drizzle.com...
>snip...
> Three respondents to this query so far & each doubts birds are the
> problem. I'll be fourth one to note incredulity. I encourage birds with
> feeders; we are visited by a huge variety of species; none ate crocus
> blossoms or anything of the sort. They will eat the berries off of several
> berrying shrubs, & of course if someone has a corn or grain food garden
> birds will like those grains, or may go after broadly cast seeds. But eat
> up the flowers? I'd have to know the exact species to believe it.
> Gardeners mistreat so much wildlife because they don't want to share their
> gardens with anything natural, but birds by & large even gardeners
> encourage with few complaints. Pigeons & crows are potential nuisance
> birds, starlings can be noisy sonzubitches scaring away anything smaller
> around the feeders, sapsuckers are potential threats to trees though the
> ones visiting us have never caused harm. The only thing the crows try to
> harvest off our block are walnuts & chestuts (which they drop from a
> height to break open on the road). And the starlings don't stay long
> enough at a time to be perpetually scaring off other birds. So even the
> nuisance birds are not nuisiances in our case.
>
> There may be some blossom-eating bird out there somewhere, but there sure
> aren't any around here.
>
> -paghat
Okay, I may be outnumbered, but I do know about birds after studying them for
many years. So perhaps I can shed some factual light on the subject. Just for
example, House Finches and American Goldfinches are two common wild bird species
that will definitely eat flower buds and blossoms, including crocus! And you
may as well forget about your vegetable garden sprouts if a flock of Pine
Siskins comes along!
If you've never seen birds eating your flower buds or your vegetable sprouts,
either you are lucky and they ate all the neighbor's instead, or you just blamed
something else for the damage but were wrong.
BT
paghat
<nos...@nospam.net> wrote:
I certainly never blamed anything else for damage, because my organic
garden experiences very little damage ever. Snails on hostas or hellebores
is about the only thing the least noticeable. We encourage birds & watch
them almost daily from the living room window (including many house
finches & a few goldfinches; but no siskins). I see them pluck the
occasional bud doing no real harm in a large garden of flowering shrubs.
I've also watched birds nearly clean out the cherries before I can get
them myself which would be annoying if I counted on the cherries but I
don't mind. And in winter when there is nothing better they'll even eat
the occasional cotoneaster & hawthorne berries which they dislike most of
the year, but never take so many berries that the winter decorativeness of
the branches is harmed.
We had scores of late-winter early-spring flowering bulbs including
crocuses & never saw them hopping about on the ground harming those even
slightly. Perhaps it is because we feed them ourselves, wild birdseed
mixes, & no reason to sample untasty things. Nor do we grow corn & cast
seeds on the surface of soil which birds are notorious for taking. But we
have hundreds of birds at a time visting us with absolutely no garden
damage. Robins will follow around behind me half tame, when I'm shoveling
dirt & they hope to snatch any upturned earthworms. Chickadees hang upsdie
down in branches watching what I'm up to, or delicately peeling back bark
on the paperbark maple disappointed when they find nothing hiding in the
bark to eat. Stellar jays yell at me to go away so they can check out the
feeders. Flickers sit on the side-porch guarding the feeders & finches go
inside one of the feeders to avoid larger birds. Cat lurks under porch &
occasionally tries for a bird, sending the whole mess of them to a high
wire for half an hour. Small birds splash like mad in the shallow birdbath
or in the dust at the side of the road. Noxious starlings arrive by the
score making a terrible racket & keeping all other birds away until the
starlings finally leave. Some trees seem to be chattering away like mad,
tiny birds invislbe in the depths of branches. Hundreds & hundreds of
birds every week & narry a bit of harm done to the plants.
Which is not to say that has to be everyone's experience with every bird.
We have sapsuckers & they cause no one any harm, though they are capable
under some circumstances of drilling trees most harmfully, they have never
focused so much attention on a given tree to harm any nearby.
Still & all, if birds did such noticeable harm as you feel you're
experiencing, it would NOT be standard policy for gardeners to encourage
the presence of birds, just as none seem to encourage the presence of
woodchucks or deer or put out saltlicks to attract goats. So either your
birds are starving & have no other options, or you're mistaking the
naturally short life of crocus blooms or the damage of snails for
moist-earth ground-level flowers for something mean old birds are doing.
If you're not just seriously mistaken, you might try feeding them in
birdfeeders, & leaving out some small garden rubbly bits for them to cart
off for nests, & see if stuff that is ideal & handy doesn't keep them from
paying quite so much attention to things that under ordinary circumstances
they'd never even notice.
-paggers
Julia Green
"Tyra Trevellyn" <tyra...@aol.comnoway> wrote > Squirrels and especially
groundhogs are the real culprits when there's any
> major damage. (Fortunately, there are no deer in the vicinity....yet.)
We have very few squirrels around here but we have *loads of bunnies. After
dark, if I stand out on the deck and shine a flashlight around, the garden
will light up with little bunny eyes everywhere <s>.
Pat Kiewicz
>
>How do you know it is the birds? Have you seen them attacking your plants? It
>is more likely to be insects or rodents.
Why do you doubt this?
*Every year* I have problems with starlings pecking at all sorts of things, plants
you would never expect birds to bother with. They have snipped off the flower buds
off squash plants (long before they open), pecked holes in the overwintering rosettes
of various perennial flowers, damaged young squashes and eggplants, pulled
up bean plants and left them laying. Perhaps I'm lucky in that they've never
bothered my crocuses -- but they have demolished my snow-in-summer.
I've seen birds attack plants. And when I haven't, the V shaped bite marks and
puntures are a dead giveaway. No rodent ever nipped a perfect 'V' into a baby
squash.
The worst time of year is when the young birds have first fledged. They seem
to peck at almost anything in the hope that it might be food. (I dearly wish that
the neighbors would take down the birdhouses, cover up the eaves, etc. where
these birds nest and cut down on their breeding opportunities. There are too
many starlings around.)
Other bird problems:
I can't grow corn unless I net the plants until they are 6" tall. Cardinals, for
among others, like to pull up the plant to get the kernal. (I have seen them do
it!) I also have to net over the sunflowers I plant from seed until they grow their
first true leaves. I've given up growing broccoli -- house finches eat the tops.
(And yes, I've seen them do it!)
Thankfully, there are so many mulberry trees in the area that my raspberries
are not attacked by birds. Otherwise, they'd have to be netted over.
--
Pat in Plymouth MI
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)
Diana S. Roney
Janet Baraclough wrote:
> (snip) I can well believe he has some bird or other that picks yellow
> crocus flowers, it's a familiar though unexplained phenomenon in the
> UK. Every other colour of crocus is safe, only the yellow ones get
> wrecked, and they get torn off or shredded rather than eaten. I've
> seen pheasants do it in my own garden, and I know sparrows do in others.
Aha! So that's what's happening! All my yellow crocus have had the blooms ripped
off and scattered, but the purple and white ones are untouched. Thanks for the info.
Diana
Kingston, Ontario
Carol Cohen
And in nestbuilding time the local sparrows, mockingbirds and wrens hop
through my garden beds picking at everything that would make good nests.
One solution might be to put out birdseed for those birds so they will have
less reason (do birds have reason?) to go in amongst the plants, and maybe a
few bunches of dried grass and hay for them to select from, for egg mattress
materials.
C.C.
plat4
Get one of those fake owls it worked for me. If it doesn't work then
you can try the fake battery operated owl that hoots and turns it's head. If
that doesn't work I suggest you get into Falconry (* if you live in fairly open
area that permits this) , only falcons tend to attack anything that moves
....crows , pigeons, cats.............etc.....they are all fair game unless
they are severely trained. I know a guy upstate NY in the catskill region who
is into Falconry and lets "Zeus" ( Red Tail Falcons' name) loose daily to feast
on the large # of crows and other pests in the area. Needless to say his garden
remains untouched by not even a single solitary lousy crow. And Zeus doesn't
even have to be let out of his cage, the pests like crows and whatever sense
his presence and do a 180 ;). Another "biorational decision".
Manos
davidan...@gmail.com
David E. Ross
each, and hang them with kite twine from nearby trees. The hole is
about the diameter of a pencil lead. The twine is about 1-1/2 to 2
feet. The CDs move and even twirl in the breeze, flashing sunshine.
This will work only for a short while, after which the birds get too
accustomed to the flashing. So I do it only when bird control is most
important (e.g., as fruit reaches its optimum ripeness).
--
David Ross
<http://www.rossde.com/>
President Trump now denies there are any tapes that
recorded his conversations with ex-FBI Director Comey.
Between when Trump hinted there might be such tapes
and his denial, there was sufficient time to destroy
any tapes.
songbird
> My problem is Stellar Jays, who have eaten the petals off most of my flowers in my garden and I have also caught them eating some of my succulents as well. I have tried changing plants and flowers but it seems they will eat almost anything. Do sure what to do at this point
a day and refill, or at least every other day.
perhaps what they are after is the moisture in
the leaves/flowers.
never hurts to try.
songbird
Jeff Layman
some birds away, particularly if you change their position from time to
time.
Also, if you are pestered by one species of bird, intermittently playing
a recording of its alarm call (maybe combined with a model of a raptor)
can often disturb them enough to make them seek easier pickings elsewhere.
--
Jeff
penm...@aol.com
birdfeeder would help... jays love cat food kibbles, especially Purina
kitten chow... very reasonably priced in the larger size bag from
Chewy.com.
This makes the best bird bath:
https://www.amazon.com/Saucer-Heavy-Purple-MH-Sleds/dp/B00HGJAKEE/ref=pd_bxgy_21_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00HGJAKEE&pd_rd_r=FPGS6C31B2WYG1DGRDT9&pd_rd_w=iObmd&pd_rd_wg=cQlYm&psc=1&refRID=FPGS6C31B2WYG1DGRDT9
Frank
> Stellar Jay
Glancing at the species, I see they eat everything and I would not put
out water which might make yard more attractive. If just a few birds,
I'd be popping with my pellet gun or other methods to chase them off.
penm...@aol.com
Frank
J. Clarke
David E. Ross
>
> Bird problem? The obvious solution is a hungry cat.
>
mockingbirds, and hummingbirds. Do not forget that a goose is a bird; a
goose might kill a cat.
J. Clarke
> On 7/23/2017 8:30 PM, J. Clarke wrote:
> >
> > Bird problem? The obvious solution is a hungry cat.
> >
>
> Some birds will actually attack a cat. That includes ravens,
> mockingbirds, and hummingbirds. Do not forget that a goose is a bird; a
> goose might kill a cat.
mentioned?
David E. Ross
prevent that. Ravens and mockingbirds can be very destructive to a
garden. At the minmum, they will steal fruit.
David E. Ross
> On 7/24/2017 8:34 PM, J. Clarke wrote:
>> In article <ol40on$69m$1...@news.albasani.net>, nob...@nowhere.invalid says...
>>>
>>> On 7/23/2017 8:30 PM, J. Clarke wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Bird problem? The obvious solution is a hungry cat.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Some birds will actually attack a cat. That includes ravens,
>>> mockingbirds, and hummingbirds. Do not forget that a goose is a bird; a
>>> goose might kill a cat.
>>
>> So when, in this thread, were ravens, mockingbirds, hummingbirds, or geese
>> mentioned?
>>
>
> The topic of this thread is how birds destroy a garden and how to
> prevent that. Ravens and mockingbirds can be very destructive to a
> garden. At the minmum, they will steal fruit.
>
penm...@aol.com
>> J. Clarke wrote:
>> >
>> > Bird problem? The obvious solution is a hungry cat.
>>
>> Some birds will actually attack a cat. That includes ravens,
>> mockingbirds, and hummingbirds. Do not forget that a goose is a bird; a
>> goose might kill a cat.
>
>So when, in this thread, were ravens, mockingbirds, hummingbirds, or geese
>mentioned?
are you a stuttering dodo?
Sheldon Katz
Amos Nomore
Robert Wolfe
>
Sheldon Katz
sawed off freak.
Amos Nomore
tonydimnick
The compact disc i think is easy and will be very effective.
about the cat.. ahhm.. i have a cat but she's even scared with rats.
ahahah!
--
tonydimnick
thepame...@gmail.com
> This morning I admired the first little crocus in a sheltered corner of my
> garden. A bit of yellow was just barely visible. Having learned from many
> previous disasters, I went back to the house to get a protector for this
> little beauty (I keep all the little plastic fruitbaskets, that f.ex. cherry
> tomatoes get sold in). But I was too late. The beasts were already sitting
> in the treebranches waiting! Anyhow, this one had no chance, but all of the
> other crocus plants are covered now!
>
> My main problem seem to be crocus flowers, pansies, silver mound and in
> spring, almost any fresh looking green leaves on a number of different
> flowers. Forget seeding lettuce etc....
>
> I have had some success with these ugly plastic figures, that move, some
> coloured plastic strips tied to a stick etc. But these beasts seem to learn
> faster every year, that nothing can spoil their meal permanantly!
>
> It happens year-round between nisting season and young birds growing up to
> full size!
> Now, the strange thing is, that I live on a farm with loads of cats
> everywhere, three dogs....
>
> What can I do to keep the birds (ugly big black ones) from eating my plants?
Just wanted to know that I believe you. I just caught two large crows eating my pansies. Caught them in the act. You are not crazy. I'm going to try something I heard on NPR. I am running some clear fishing line over the garden, above the flowers. Shouldn't be visible to the viewing public, just the birds. According to the show I heard discussing this, it works quite well. I'll try to let you know if it works.