Blackbirds and squirrels
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Blackbirds and squirrels
- From: b* s*
- Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 18:38:32 +0800
partial quote from Moira:
"First, my garden is, as you suppose, to my pleasure crawling with worms.
Unluckily for them a pair of English blackbirds which have made this
desirable property their home for many years are extremely fomd of worms
also, but not, alas for the same reasons. It's not just the taking of
the worms, I guess as in most reasonably natural systems the provision
of food for the inhabitants is important, but the awful way they obtain
them by most ferocius digging which disrupts mulched beds horribly
mixing the layers and throwing a lot of the material right out on to the
paths. It is even worse where there are recently set out plants which
get their roots badly disturbed or exposed, in some cases being dug
right out and thrown aside or covered up with thick pads of displaced
mulch.
Fortunately this only lasts from spring to about midsummer after which
they go on holiday till late winter, thank goodness, and I have learnt
to live with it by covering the most vulnerable parts of the garden with
netting and just leaving a few unoccupied and unimportant mulched areas
to allow them to continue foraging (I wouldn't like their babies to
starve!!)"
Moira,
In my garden the squirrels do exactly the kind of damage the blackbirds do
in yours. But the squirrels are digging for everything *but* worms and
really love the newspaper I've put down under the mulch. They seem to be
taking it for their nests. I've found enough chicken wire to cover a small
part of my newspaper/mulch project but need more to protect the rest from
the squirrels.
I find it difficult to feel any affection for the bushy-tailed rats and
they've proliferated alarmingly through the years.
Barbara - in Berkeley
