Friday, July 01, 2016

Blueberry flavored catbird

So here's the deal - if you're going to be smart enough to find the one little opening in all the netting and get into my protected blueberries...



...maybe you should be smart enough to remember where that opening was so you can get back out again!



Catbirds drive me nuts.  They're BEAUTIFUL!  And they sound so cool!  But they're the thieves of my garden.  If I've got ripe strawberries, there's a catbird stealing them.  Now that I'm getting blueberries (from the four shrubs I planted last year)?  The catbird is in them!


I knew this was going to happen, so I netted the blueberries two weeks ago - before the first of them were fully ripe.  I've seen birds checking them out, showing interest, and even found a large frog caught (dead, unfortunately) in the netting.  I just picked the blueberries Monday afternoon, getting a nice harvest, and knowing there were plenty more yet to ripen.  I got home Wednesday afternoon, figuring I'd see what there was to pick, and found this guy fluttering around inside the netting.



And I think it helped itself to the berries while trapped in there - I didn't find any ripe ones ready to be picked.



After a very noisy capture of the bird, and taking some pics, I set it free, found the place where it most likely got in, and covered the exposed bottom edge of the netting with the pine needle mulch I use in the bed.  Hopefully hiding that will prevent another entry...



Oh, and I sent Brett one of the pics while he was at work, asking how he felt about blueberry flavored catbird for dinner.  I was called a meanie.  ;-)

2 comments:

Sue said...

Oh, I'm sure he learned his lesson. Yea. We believe that.

I have the Robins and Thrashers.....and despite my best efforts, there is always at least ONE in there when I unclip the fabric to pick. Maddening!

I always let them go.......but sometimes Robin pie starts sounding tasty!
:D

Jeph said...

Hunh, I didn't know the robins would have any interest! I've never seen them checking out my fruits - mostly because they're always going for the bugs/worms. Interesting!

And I just saw a brown thrasher the other day - now I know who does all that singing back in the woods.