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Catbirds are too stupid to live
Aug. 5th, 2003 11:48 am...and I mean that literally.
Our blueberries have begun to ripen, and we draped netting over them late last week. Twice since then we have come out to discover a catbird helplessly fluttering around under the netting, trying without success to find a way out -- presumably having forgotten how it got in in the first place. (We're actually not sure how it got in either, although today I noticed a few holes up at the top that might be big enough for a catbird intent on grabbing some blueberries to fly through without particularly noticing.)
We've seen this before, and sometimes discovered too late that what eventually happens is that the bird exhausts itself trying to beat its way through the netting, and dies. I don't particularly want catbirds, dead or alive, among my blueberries.
So when we discover trapped birds, we open the netting on at least one side (two if possible) and drape the edge as well as we can over the frame, and hope the bird finds this wide-open exit. Both times this week, the bird has eventually found it, but it took a surprisingly long time. This morning I decided it was time to actually harvest some berries (the invading birds don't seem to have eaten very many, if any), and I picked nearly a pint of berries while the bird mostly sat still and kept away from me (so quitely, in fact, that at first I thought it had left). When I was done I did my best to direct it to the opening (by getting on the other side of it, on the assumption that it would flee and find the exit by sheer luck), but it took quite a while.
This is annoying.
The good news is that it looks like we're going to have a huge crop of blueberries this year. Maybe a cold winter and a wet spring are exactly what they need.
Our blueberries have begun to ripen, and we draped netting over them late last week. Twice since then we have come out to discover a catbird helplessly fluttering around under the netting, trying without success to find a way out -- presumably having forgotten how it got in in the first place. (We're actually not sure how it got in either, although today I noticed a few holes up at the top that might be big enough for a catbird intent on grabbing some blueberries to fly through without particularly noticing.)
We've seen this before, and sometimes discovered too late that what eventually happens is that the bird exhausts itself trying to beat its way through the netting, and dies. I don't particularly want catbirds, dead or alive, among my blueberries.
So when we discover trapped birds, we open the netting on at least one side (two if possible) and drape the edge as well as we can over the frame, and hope the bird finds this wide-open exit. Both times this week, the bird has eventually found it, but it took a surprisingly long time. This morning I decided it was time to actually harvest some berries (the invading birds don't seem to have eaten very many, if any), and I picked nearly a pint of berries while the bird mostly sat still and kept away from me (so quitely, in fact, that at first I thought it had left). When I was done I did my best to direct it to the opening (by getting on the other side of it, on the assumption that it would flee and find the exit by sheer luck), but it took quite a while.
This is annoying.
The good news is that it looks like we're going to have a huge crop of blueberries this year. Maybe a cold winter and a wet spring are exactly what they need.
