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Dealing with birds

Great outdoors

Great outdoors

Active member
So I have grown no till organic in my garden for about 10yrs now. I also practice plenty of sheet composting on the original holes. The holes have built up over the years and now they are 2ft plus mounds. These mounds are worm and beneficial bug factories. Any handful of dirt will have multiple critters and worms.
This makes them bird heaven. The last bunch of years I have been battling them all season long. Love to dig holes in the mounds. My solution has to been to cover the mulch with medium sized flat rocks. This works and does make some more homes for critters but is a pain in the ass for when ever I add more mulch or top dressings.
I bought a bunch of owl and hawk decoys this year and surrounded the garden with them to no avail. I have CD's hanging in the garden, no love there either.
Most of the season it's Robin's and I had a couple that would dig by the main stalk this year as it was rock free close. They finally pissed me off so bad I set a few mouse traps up by the stalks. Wasn't a hour later and I heard the trap snap from my house and went down to the garden to find a Robin with the mouse trap on its leg. I managed to let it go and it flew off and did a lot of squaking. Well it worked, message got out and the Robin's stayed clear the rest of the season. This worked but far from ideal solution.
Even today with my fall composting and mulch layers there are Blue Jays out there digging around.
So big question. Anyone out there with some good humane ways of keeping birds out of the garden?
 
Great outdoors

Great outdoors

Active member
That's actually a really good idea I never thought of.
Downfall is plants typically get up to 12ft tall plus a couple feet for the mounds means some pretty tall posts.
 
Great outdoors

Great outdoors

Active member
Now you have me thinking...
I have a bunch of old commercial fishing net around I could use around the bottom of the plant to protect the mound. Plant above should keep them from coming in.
Now I just need to keep them from thinking they are trees and landing on the branches and breaking them. Had to repair half a dozen branches they did that on this summer.
 
T

Teddybrae

I have big pots that are worm bins too. We also have these great birds with long beaks. I got 10 mm squares light wire mesh, wired 1" poly around the edges to make it stiff, layed these over the pots. Easy to remove when I service the pots. Maybe not so easy for you. Sounds like yr piles are an irregular shape. You could do it tho'.
 
therevverend

therevverend

Well-known member
Veteran
Doesn't seem like a bird digging for worms around a 12 foot plant is going to succeed in doing much damage? Netting is always the way to go with birds. Or kids with bb guns, I saw a native kid with a pellet gun on youtube the other day showing off his butchering skills extracting the tasty breast from a robin he'd just shot. There's hawks in my neighborhood that drop out of the sky like a missile taking out small birds.

The birds were using an overhanging branch in my patch as a perch and shit all sorts of nasty stuff over a few of my plants. Free guano though. Seedlings and seeds can get wiped out by birds. My buddy in Mendocino had a problem with the Stellar's Jays. They'd try to land on a long branch, the branch would break from the weight and it would sling them up in the air. The jays decided it was fun so it turned into a game for them every morning until they moved on to raiding his fruit trees. Another friend had a similar problem this year with ground squirrels doing the same sort of shit. In his case the branches were broken, lying on the ground but were still barely attached and produced buds anyway.

I've got a cat that discourages birds, rabbits, and rodents from getting too comfortable around my garden. Although he'll bring his own type of destruction to seedlings when he uses my freshly dug soil as a litterbox. He must get confused, I yell at him when the plants are small and praise him for the free fertilizer when they get bigger.

I usually see the birds as beneficial in my garden. The population of moths, mites, thrips, aphids, leafhoppers, and the rest stay low. Besides the beneficial earthworms a lot of the stuff they grub for in the ground is destructive, apple maggots, beetle larvae, moth larvae, some of those things will either climb up the ganja or eat the roots. I had quite a few dragonflies and even a couple garter snakes this year which bring good luck. Although one snake got it's tail chewed off by the cat.
 
A

Amynamous

Active member
My two cents:
If the birds are interested in what’s in your soil, let them be. Worms breed like crazy. They’ll make babies. Don’t worry about it.
If the birds actually start eating/smoking your plants, shoot the fuckers.
 
Great outdoors

Great outdoors

Active member
Yeah I am not worried about the worms so much. As said above it's all part of the food web and yes they do reward me with lots of guano. It's just that the mounds are such easy digging for them. Left to there ways they can dig some big ass holes and expose lots of roots.
Like I said the flat rocks work, just looking for other solutions.
 
Great outdoors

Great outdoors

Active member
therevverend said:
Doesn't seem like a bird digging for worms around a 12 foot plant is going to succeed in doing much damage? Netting is always the way to go with birds. Or kids with bb guns, I saw a native kid with a pellet gun on youtube the other day showing off his butchering skills extracting the tasty breast from a robin he'd just shot. There's hawks in my neighborhood that drop out of the sky like a missile taking out small birds.

The birds were using an overhanging branch in my patch as a perch and shit all sorts of nasty stuff over a few of my plants. Free guano though. Seedlings and seeds can get wiped out by birds. My buddy in Mendocino had a problem with the Stellar's Jays. They'd try to land on a long branch, the branch would break from the weight and it would sling them up in the air. The jays decided it was fun so it turned into a game for them every morning until they moved on to raiding his fruit trees. Another friend had a similar problem this year with ground squirrels doing the same sort of shit. In his case the branches were broken, lying on the ground but were still barely attached and produced buds anyway.

I've got a cat that discourages birds, rabbits, and rodents from getting too comfortable around my garden. Although he'll bring his own type of destruction to seedlings when he uses my freshly dug soil as a litterbox. He must get confused, I yell at him when the plants are small and praise him for the free fertilizer when they get bigger.

I usually see the birds as beneficial in my garden. The population of moths, mites, thrips, aphids, leafhoppers, and the rest stay low. Besides the beneficial earthworms a lot of the stuff they grub for in the ground is destructive, apple maggots, beetle larvae, moth larvae, some of those things will either climb up the ganja or eat the roots. I had quite a few dragonflies and even a couple garter snakes this year which bring good luck. Although one snake got it's tail chewed off by the cat.
Click to expand...

Yeah my garden is a bit of wild kingdom. Lots of snakes, alligator lizards, birds and plenty of insects. I keep my cat locked out of the garden though. That bastard loves using the mounds as a litter box. Once again he likes the easy digging too.
Only other critter I have to control is pack rats, but I have no problem killing them.
 
T

Teddybrae

Well, it's a helluva problem to have out there in the richness of the Wilds. For me there's nothing like being surrounded by Nature. It's taken 20 years for the beasts of the Forest here to get to know us but the birds especially come very close to us now and the Wallabies only hop away a few meters.
 
S

St. Phatty

Active member
I had a few pot plants get trampled by birds, this year.

Also had one particular garden plot that never really took off.

But, the birds really liked the garden plot soil. With corn & sunflower roots to peck at.

I never saw the Chickens or Silkies pecking at it.

But there are a few dozen quail families in my front yard. Them I do see, retreating to the protection of the blackberries, when I get up in the morning.

Rich moist dirt, especially, attracts them. They peck at it, pick through it, and scratch at it. Like a force of nature.


As far as the plants that got trampled, all they needed was a stake - at the right time.

Those plants were mostly invisible. They were in a pit about 5 feet deep, dug by gold miners about 100 years ago.

All that's left now is the bottom of a Romberry that is partially seeded & I want to give the seeds all the time they need.

I don't want to put up too much bird fencing because it takes away from the Stealth.
 
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