Topic: Bird damage.

[calico]

Has anyone noticed a pronounced increase in bird damage over the last couple of years.
In the past they would prey on young Brassica plants and no longer touch them when they get a bit bigger.
Now they are eating EVERYTHING.
They are consuming even large mature Brassicas, lettuce , french beans,
pak choi, turnip leaves, swede...virtually the lot.
When the plants are netted they are climbing inside and eating.
I have tried that fancy iridescent hologram tape and hanging things to wave in the wind , all to no avail.
Its woodpigeons and they are so large that they can hardly fly  !!
Its very depressing.....
Amybody got any groundbreaking ideas......I always seem to miss with my fishermans catapult.

[BAK]

On our site ...

* they have always gone for the brassicas (even the larger older ones) and soft fruit, particularly gooseberries and currants

* 4-5 years ago they developed a liking for peas and mangetout

* new this year so far (to my knowledge) .. unripe fruit (which caught out a number of plot holders) and the flowers on potato plants.

Netting is the main defence. Eg, we bend over chicken wire (into a semi-circular shape) and put them over lettuce, pegging them down.  It helps to keep birds, deer and the occasional rabbit at bay.

 

[Duke Ellington]

I have a brassica bed covered with debris netting and I can only guess that a bird pecked a hole in it ~~~little *****!!

Duke

[Barnowl]

Now they are eating EVERYTHING.

The tops off our marigolds....

[Robert_Brenchley]

They vary from place to place, it could be just that yours are getting into the habit. I don't remember anyone netting brassicas on my father's site; he certainly didn't and they were never eaten. Mine get devastated from the first cold weather until spring, and some people here complain about it being a year-round problem.

[betula]

Something has demo;ished my PSB,just little stalks left,taken chunks out of my outdoor cucumber,and taken chunks out of my courgette.

My seedlings hads been messed about with.

We do have a pheasant that wanders about and lately has a large light brown bird with it Youngster??Could it be this.The seed packets I left at the end of the row have been pulled out and been bitten.

The fact that my early spuds are none existent,now this have really got me down.

My onions have nearly all gone the bed got waterlogged,.

The beans are sitting feeling sorry for themselves.

And so am I.

[ceres]

Sorry to hear this betula, I know how you feel.  Much of my stuff is poorly and won't crop because of the weedkiller.  I think a lot of the wildlife that are feeding young at the moment are being bolder looking for food.  Can you net things to protect from the pheasant?  There's still plenty of time to sow more stuff - perhaps you could go for Christmas potatoes to make up for your earlies?

[betula]

Thanks Ceres,yes I will have another go and net it all,not had to do this before apart from strawbs,even they are still Green

I have never seen this kind of damage before.

Sorry about your probs,I do have some PFA in and the foliage looks OK and the main crop,however the foliage looked OK for a long time on the earlies.

Have you got anything growing well ceres or is everything affected? :)

[theothermarg]

I agree with every thing thats been said
the high winds wed night blew a bit of net off my late PSB and they stripped it
a quite big cabbage was poking out at the end of a row,it,s stripped
they used to be scared to go under a ne but now you have to make quite sure it,s right to the ground. I released a pidgin from someones net today it had got in and couldn,t find it,s way out. not up to wringing a live birds neck I,m afraid
marg

[ceres]

It's a constant battle isn't it with the weather and the wildlife and the odd man-made disaster.  Luckily gardeners seem to be resilient people, or maybe you don't become a gardener unless you're resilient!  We've been advised to do weekly foliar feeding on our sick spuds- might be worth trying for yours, and if you are blight-prone start spraying early.

Our potatoes are worst affected - not a single spud on my Swifts.  Beans are next.  Spring sown broad beans are under 6" tall and deformed.  Runner beans are stuck at about 9" (on 6ft canes!) and the foliage is very yellow.  Dwarf french beans are at 4" and also yellow.  Brassicas still tiny.  These were all healthy seedlings when they went in the ground - I started them all at home as nothing that I sowed direct came through.  3 of my 10 asparagus crowns haven't come through under a mulch of manure.  Roots are OK - no manure.  Too early to tell yet for toms, cukes, squashes, peppers, aubies, courgettes.  Salads seem OK but spinach and rocket have been very slow and patchy.  Keeping an eye on rasps also under a manure mulch - not sure about them.