In article , David W.E.
Roberts writes
Hi,

there is a theory that extra berries on the shrubs means a hard winter and
nature is taking care of all the birds etc.

"Old wives tale" is correct :-)

This sounds doubtful if subjected to logical analysis anyway - my 2p theory
is that more berries means a good summer, and good summers (lots of high
pressure and clear skies) are often followed by hard winters (lots of high
pressure and clear skies).

Lots of berries at the end of a summer means that in the previous
summer/autumn, the plant was able to lay down good reserves of energy
with which to produce masses of flowers and then fruit the following
year.

In the UK at least, there is no correlation between good summers and
succeeding, or preceding, hard winters. Indeed, we don't seem to get
hard winters any more!

Be that as it may:

we had loads of berries on the shrubs last year - after a wonderful summer.

There are still loads of berries on the shrub by our steps (cotoneaster
springs to mind, but that may be the other one).
I need to prune this back because it is invading the area of the steps and I
do like to go down into the garden :-)
However it is still loaded with red berries, and pruning back will invlove
throwing away most of these berries.

So; are the birds still dependant on last years berries, or will this years
growth be feeding them? I know the pigeons are doing well off the buds on
our plum trees.

Some birds switch to buds in the spring because they are very nutritious
when growing. Other birds may still feed on berries, but these may have
lost some of their food value through the winter and so be less
attractive.

As a first stage I have cleared the top layer of growth, exposing the
berries underneath.
I will watch for a bit in case the birds start stripping these, but I
suspect that nature has over provided in this case.

Obviously I don't want to remove a valuable resource for the wild life, but
how long do they depend on last years berries?

That all depends on what other food sources are available.

--
Malcolm