Sweet Cherries - Beware
 

There's been a bit of discussion lately about sweet cherries so a word
of warning. We have a heavily cropping mature sweet cherry in our
garden and the cherries are delicious - the ones left for us, that is!
They are exceedingly attractive to birds and squirrels and they will
literally gorge on them. Wood Pigeons like them and Blackbirds are
quite destructive, often slashing into cherries and leaving them
damaged rather than taking the whole fruit. We even have a pair of
Carrion Crows regularly feeding on them. When they come all other
birds leave the garden, although the pigeons will try to stand up to
them for so long. Today a flock of Starlings, 50 at least, descended
on the tree, but left in a hurry when an indignant Lord Crow dropped
vertically into the top, staying to eat a couple of cherries himself.
If anyone is hoping for a viable crop, rather than the occasional
treat, it will almost certainly be necessary to protect the ripe
cherries. Pigeons even take them green.

If anyone is hoping for a viable crop, rather than the occasional
treat, it will almost certainly be necessary to protect the ripe
cherries. Pigeons even take them green.

What do you think old nylons are for?!

Geoff

"Geoff" wrote in message
...

If anyone is hoping for a viable crop, rather than the occasional
treat, it will almost certainly be necessary to protect the ripe
cherries. Pigeons even take them green.

What do you think old nylons are for?!

Geoff

bank robberies to earn the money to buy cherries at the supermarket?

--
Tumbleweed

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com

The message
from "Geoff" contains these words:

If anyone is hoping for a viable crop, rather than the occasional
treat, it will almost certainly be necessary to protect the ripe
cherries. Pigeons even take them green.

What do you think old nylons are for?!

Old lechers like me?

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

"Tumbleweed" wrote in message
...

"Geoff" wrote in message
...

If anyone is hoping for a viable crop, rather than the occasional
treat, it will almost certainly be necessary to protect the ripe
cherries. Pigeons even take them green.

What do you think old nylons are for?!

Geoff

bank robberies to earn the money to buy cherries at the supermarket?

--
Tumbleweed

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com

At supermarket prices I can believe it.

There's been a bit of discussion lately about sweet cherries so a word
of warning. We have a heavily cropping mature sweet cherry in our
garden and the cherries are delicious - the ones left for us, that is!
They are exceedingly attractive to birds and squirrels and they will
literally gorge on them. Wood Pigeons like them and Blackbirds are
quite destructive, often slashing into cherries and leaving them
damaged rather than taking the whole fruit. We even have a pair of
Carrion Crows regularly feeding on them. When they come all other
birds leave the garden, although the pigeons will try to stand up to
them for so long. Today a flock of Starlings, 50 at least, descended
on the tree, but left in a hurry when an indignant Lord Crow dropped
vertically into the top, staying to eat a couple of cherries himself.
If anyone is hoping for a viable crop, rather than the occasional
treat, it will almost certainly be necessary to protect the ripe
cherries. Pigeons even take them green.

Tell us about it! Squirrels have been laying siege here, even leave the
fruit cage door unsecured for 5 minutes and they're in there. We had to
resort to wire netting over the cage. They aren't so interested in the other
fruit, once the cherries have been picked we can relax a bit
--
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.
"Jupiter" wrote in message
...

If you think you can leave your cherries, that are just no quite ripe
till tomorrow.

Then forget about it.

As the blackbirds, pigeons etc will have wiped them out during the
night ?? and will leave absolutley nothing on the branches.

So cover them up, the cherries that is, not the birds.

On Wed, 6 Jul 2005 21:47:23 +0100, "Rod Craddock"
wrote:

There's been a bit of discussion lately about sweet cherries so a word
of warning. We have a heavily cropping mature sweet cherry in our
garden and the cherries are delicious - the ones left for us, that is!
They are exceedingly attractive to birds and squirrels and they will
literally gorge on them. Wood Pigeons like them and Blackbirds are
quite destructive, often slashing into cherries and leaving them
damaged rather than taking the whole fruit. We even have a pair of
Carrion Crows regularly feeding on them. When they come all other
birds leave the garden, although the pigeons will try to stand up to
them for so long. Today a flock of Starlings, 50 at least, descended
on the tree, but left in a hurry when an indignant Lord Crow dropped
vertically into the top, staying to eat a couple of cherries himself.
If anyone is hoping for a viable crop, rather than the occasional
treat, it will almost certainly be necessary to protect the ripe
cherries. Pigeons even take them green.

Tell us about it! Squirrels have been laying siege here, even leave the
fruit cage door unsecured for 5 minutes and they're in there. We had to
resort to wire netting over the cage. They aren't so interested in the other
fruit, once the cherries have been picked we can relax a bit

I think some of ours are morphiong into flying foxes. I've seen them
take a run along the top of the fence and leap 10 feet or so straight
into the cherry tree.

On Thu, 07 Jul 2005 06:11:22 GMT, gray wrote:

If you think you can leave your cherries, that are just no quite ripe
till tomorrow.

Then forget about it.

As the blackbirds, pigeons etc will have wiped them out during the
night ?? and will leave absolutley nothing on the branches.

So cover them up, the cherries that is, not the birds.

Actually, the crows are probably quite useful, apart from the noise
and habit of depositing bird skeletons on the garden paths. We
haven't seen a magpie in the garden since they arrived. They
intimidate and chase off other birds from the cherry tree and don't
take that many themselves. When they do, it's a whole cherry carefully
and neatly removed.

Jupiter wrote:
: There's been a bit of discussion lately about sweet cherries so a word
: of warning. We have a heavily cropping mature sweet cherry in our
: garden and the cherries are delicious - the ones left for us, that is!
: They are exceedingly attractive to birds and squirrels and they will
: literally gorge on them. Wood Pigeons like them and Blackbirds are
: quite destructive, often slashing into cherries and leaving them
: damaged rather than taking the whole fruit. We even have a pair of
: Carrion Crows regularly feeding on them. When they come all other
: birds leave the garden, although the pigeons will try to stand up to
: them for so long. Today a flock of Starlings, 50 at least, descended
: on the tree, but left in a hurry when an indignant Lord Crow dropped
: vertically into the top, staying to eat a couple of cherries himself.
: If anyone is hoping for a viable crop, rather than the occasional
: treat, it will almost certainly be necessary to protect the ripe
: cherries. Pigeons even take them green.

And if you think you have it sorted by netting the trees (mine are on
dwarfing root stock, but it's still a job and a half), then when they
ripen the wasps get in and get them once they are near ripe.

On Thu, 7 Jul 2005 10:21:54 +0000 (UTC), J Jackson
wrote:

Jupiter wrote:
: There's been a bit of discussion lately about sweet cherries so a word
: of warning. We have a heavily cropping mature sweet cherry in our
: garden and the cherries are delicious - the ones left for us, that is!
: They are exceedingly attractive to birds and squirrels and they will
: literally gorge on them. Wood Pigeons like them and Blackbirds are
: quite destructive, often slashing into cherries and leaving them
: damaged rather than taking the whole fruit. We even have a pair of
: Carrion Crows regularly feeding on them. When they come all other
: birds leave the garden, although the pigeons will try to stand up to
: them for so long. Today a flock of Starlings, 50 at least, descended
: on the tree, but left in a hurry when an indignant Lord Crow dropped
: vertically into the top, staying to eat a couple of cherries himself.
: If anyone is hoping for a viable crop, rather than the occasional
: treat, it will almost certainly be necessary to protect the ripe
: cherries. Pigeons even take them green.

And if you think you have it sorted by netting the trees (mine are on
dwarfing root stock, but it's still a job and a half), then when they
ripen the wasps get in and get them once they are near ripe.

My cherries are just about finished now (the ones still left) and the
wasps haven't shown up yet. However, the neighbouring plum tree is
coming along nicely - again a heavy crop this year and I've had to
support some of the branches. Being bigger than cherries, wasps can
get right inside them so care is needed when picking them. They get
drunk on the windfalls and buzz around at ankle level, incapable of
taking off properly. Bit like our local bingedrinking ASBO merchants
who can't find their way home at night.