Yesterday I planted some lettuce seedlings in the garden, only to find
them serving as a tempting salad for the birds. I found several
Rufous-crowned Sparrows devouring my lettuce plants this morning. I
had no idea the birds were herbacious! Fruits and nuts, sure. But
lettuce?

I've taken great pains to welcome birds into my garden, providing
food, water, and shelter, but I would like to keep my vegetable garden
in tact as much as possible. How can I prevent them from devouring my
lettuce? I tried hanging an audio CD from a string, which was a
recommended method of scaring them out of my raised beds, but it had
no effect on them. Any suggestions?

In article ,
(Fleemo) wrote:

Yesterday I planted some lettuce seedlings in the garden, only to find
them serving as a tempting salad for the birds. I found several
Rufous-crowned Sparrows devouring my lettuce plants this morning. I
had no idea the birds were herbacious! Fruits and nuts, sure. But
lettuce?

Sparrows are omnivoris & will eat ants, caterpillars, worms, thistleheads,
berries, chickweed, grass-seed, & tender lettuce. The latter isn't their
favorite, though, & they MIGHT not be so much eating it as clipping it
into lengths to line & soften nests, in which case they will stop as soon
as they are brooding.

-paghat the ratgirls

I've taken great pains to welcome birds into my garden, providing
food, water, and shelter, but I would like to keep my vegetable garden
in tact as much as possible. How can I prevent them from devouring my
lettuce? I tried hanging an audio CD from a string, which was a
recommended method of scaring them out of my raised beds, but it had
no effect on them. Any suggestions?

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

I haven't had small birds do any damage to my garden but I've lost count how
many times I've been woken up at the crack of dawn by ravens ripping the
lettuce plants right out. They're not eating them... just ripping them out
and dropping them. And only lettuce. I've never been able to figure it
out. You could try covering the young plants in plastic to make a mini
greenhouse until they are too big for the little birds to damage.
--
Tammie
West of Hornepayne, Ont, Canada
http://community.webshots.com/user/_tammie57

"Fleemo" wrote in message
om...
Yesterday I planted some lettuce seedlings in the garden, only to find
them serving as a tempting salad for the birds. I found several
Rufous-crowned Sparrows devouring my lettuce plants this morning. I
had no idea the birds were herbacious! Fruits and nuts, sure. But
lettuce?

I've taken great pains to welcome birds into my garden, providing
food, water, and shelter, but I would like to keep my vegetable garden
in tact as much as possible. How can I prevent them from devouring my
lettuce? I tried hanging an audio CD from a string, which was a
recommended method of scaring them out of my raised beds, but it had
no effect on them. Any suggestions?