Birds, Birds, Birds …

We love our birds … they are, after all, what gives our land its voice, makes us the “tir ceòlmhor” – the singing land.  However, sometimes there are conflicts …

It started with the Saskatoon tree the year we arrived.  We carefully extracted it from the mass of rose, ivy, and salmonberry that had overgrown it, and began the process of nurturing it into a productive tree.  However, in the three years it has bloomed for us, we have yet to consume a ripe, juicy Saskatoon berry.  The cedar waxwings move in as soon as the fruit begins to ripen, and get every berry that’s worth eating.

Last year went over the top … a horde of purple finches landed on our golden plum tree as it was blossoming and ripped every single blossom off the tree.  I have no idea why.  They didn’t consume the flowers, just dropped them on the ground and left.  Needless to say, we got no plums that year.

So this year, we fought back … with bird netting.  Both the Saskatoon tree and the plum tree have netting enclosures built around them, and soon all of our berry bushes will be netted over as well.  It will be interesting to see what our crops will be like this summer.

Image: Golden plum tree and associated red huckleberry bush under bird netting.