12-05-2004, 04:05 PM
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wild ducks in the garden
(Pat Kiewicz) wrote in message ...
simy1 said:
This is a new. In the past I have had to cope with woodchucks,
rabbits, voles, deer, slugs, and wasps (not mentioning the ever
present vine borers). Foxes, possums, raccoons, squirrels,
As they do mine, respecting the fence topped with shock wire --
excepting the wasps (good guys, so you want them on patrol) and
vine borers (which fly during the day and never learn to respect
the gardener despite the number of borers that get killed).
moles and crows usually leave the garden alone, and small birds
in general produce negligible damage.
Mole tunnels are a nuisance, if only because the voles may make
use of them and water runs away through them.
I was lucky when I laid chicken wire under my beds at the start. It is
all broken now, having rusted away, but I feel it occasionally when I
dig in to remove some large taproot. It creates enough disruption for
the moles to stay away. Voles used to come (and dig tunnels) on their
own.
Crows and birds
need to be netted out of my corn and sunflower patchs, though.
And newly-fledged starlings make a nuisance of themselves, pulling
blossoms off the squash and eggplants. And the feathered set
can really do a number on ripening corn. (This year I'm going to
try sewing bags from old sheet to cover the ears. Paper bags don't
work anymore.)
Yes, I have prudently stayed away from corn so far and that has saved
me quite a bit of trouble. The crows, which used to dominate bird life
in my yard (a big group numbering at least ten), are gone, courtesy
almost certainly of the West Nile virus (as are the bluejays, one of
which I found dead). Without them, hawks have returned, with attendant
decreasing rodent population, and the number of songbirds (whose eggs
were eaten by crows) has also gone up.
I stepped out of the backdoor last night after dinner to find five ducks
in the garden (they fled on sight). I can see why they should be there (all
greens and garlic planted, many small greens which I am sure can interest
a duck). I found no evidence of damage, maybe they had just arrived.
Curiously enough, I noticed a duck in the garden last month (or, rather, I
noticed a duck running up and down the fence on the outside of the garden,
sent my daughter out, and she saw the duck in the garden.
Something had pulled up all my just-sprouted peas and left the roots and
a few tiny tips behind. As such a thing had never happened before, I blamed
the duck.
How do I discourage them?
I don't know. As far as I can tell, the ducks haven't been back here. Once they
are past the period of courting and nesting (when they hide themselves away
all over the place) they usually stick to wetlands and ponds. I've only ever
seen them in people's yards in springtime.
I see them as well in the spring. In the darkest days of garden
rampages, I thought that I would ultimately garden in a chicken wire
cube, closed on all six sides.
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