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4 Reasons why getting apricots pecked over by feathered scoundrels could be a learning experience
By Tangerine Meg | November 20, 2009
Hello Dear folks,
My Facebook Status this week:
“Survivor, Backyard Apricot Tree” Outwit, Outplay, Outlast.
Rainbow Lorikeets 50, Me Zero.
I’ll bet your birdy stomachs will ache – all the fruit you have pecked to shreds is green, green, green. I’ll be ready for you next year, rainbowy beaky bandits!
Here is a photo of both devastation and hope:
The avifauna desperados peck the apricots leaving a bedraggled mess of seed hanging in shredded flesh, striking just days before the fruit are ripe. I chase them away with a broom like a crazy orchard fanatic (maybe I am one?). The birds return within a short time, of course.
So with all the fruity wreckage, what good can come from this ?
- This really is the Number 1 reason: I got to meet my back neighbour – I have lived here for 10 years, and we have never before spoken. United against a common beaked enemy we have joined forces. This morning we both were plastic bagging the remaining few apricots on our respective sides of the fence.
- I am firmly resolved to be better prepared next year. If I ‘prune in June’ like the gardeners rhyme says, then netting will be easier. I don’t even mind if some flowers/fruit are outside the net for the fowl, so long as some remains intact under the cover.
- Once I acknowledged the initial heartache of the avian taunting and plundering I began to ponder. Could I use my human brain to outwit the fiends? Now the last dozen or so whole fruit are encased in bags. Hope they still ripen without much air.
- I will utilise this as a clear reminder to take neither the yield nor beauty of this world for granted. The yield can be destroyed by the beauty, and the beauty has no remorse for it is focussed only on survival.
Score update post plastic bag application: Rainbow Lorikeets 70, Me 7. Woohoo! Well I am not exactly gaining on them but have felt quite a catharsis from writing this. Thanks for reading!
See ya,
Meg
PS Upon refelection, Number 5 should probably be: Appreciate the bounty and beauty of nature & accept that which is meant for you. Learn from natures story and struggles. It’s not all about us humans after all!
Topics: gardening | 2 Comments »
August 11th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
place some large stakes in the ground in a circle around the tree…slide over the top of one stake large water piping and place other end over opposite stake..should slide down to reach ground. repeat procedure till all stakes (usually 4 to 6 are enough) have pipes over the tree in big loops. Where the pipe/hose touch and cross over at the top of tree secure pieces together. then over the pipes (black plastic irrigation from bunnings) place your white bird netting. it should come to the ground and place bricks around the bottom sealing the tree inside and fruit! pull the netting tight cause the sweet little birds will use their weight to get close to the fruit and eat through the netting. they also have teams trained to squeeze under the netting and wake you at night ..usually at 2 am..
August 14th, 2010 at 3:29 am
Great information! Thanks a lot, Heather!