A few years ago, I wrote about my battle with marauding robins in our strawberry patch. At the time I was feeling smug because I’d just finished locking the robins out with plastic netting.
Fast-forward a couple of years, and the plastic netting had decayed in the sun to the point where the robins could simply push through it. Fine. We were ready for a permanent enclosure anyway.
We got the wire mesh and steel poles, and then I hurt my back and couldn’t pick strawberries anyway. The strawberry patch turned into a weedy mess, and the robins had their merry way with the remaining berries.
But then, inspiration struck: If I couldn’t pick strawberries from the beds on the ground, why not raise them? Strawberry gutters to the rescue! The berry-enclosure project was revived.
Fast-forward to this spring:
We installed the netting roof just as the strawberries were ripening, and I eyed the enclosure with satisfaction. Conveniently pickable berries; birds excluded. Perfect.
Not two hours later, I glanced out the window and spotted a bird in there.
After a moment’s chagrin, I decided we must have left a gap in the roof netting; or maybe on one of the side walls where the wire mesh overlapped. That should be easily remedied. I went out and battened down the hatches, then headed back to the house secure in the knowledge that my berries were now safe.
Two hours later: Another bird in the enclosure. What?
Out I went again. This time I spent a bunch of time kicking up a ridge of dirt all around the bottom of the walls, surmising that the birds must be ducking (or in this case, Spotted Towhee-ing) under the bottom of the chicken-wire.
Just as I finished that sweat-popping chore, the towhee came back and landed outside the enclosure.
“Ha! You’re outta luck, buddy,” I told him. “No more berries for you.”
As I turned away, a flash of movement caught my eye. In the instant it took me to turn back, the towhee was already perched inside on a berry trough. Taunting me with his reedy whistling laugh, the little bastard.
What the actual f***?!?
I’m embarrassed to admit how many more trips to and from the enclosure (now dubbed The Birdcage) were necessary before I figured out that the nylon roof mesh has larger holes than the chicken-wire. It still excludes fat robins, but the slimmer towhees can slip right through. The towhee figured that out in seconds. It took me several days. Who’s the bird-brain here?
The strawberries are just about finished for the season anyway, and the towhee isn’t as greedy and destructive as the robins; so we’ve decided to deal with the roof problem later. But now the towhee comes over and cusses me out every time I go into his berry patch.
Bird-brains. Sigh.
Book 18 update: Progress at last, woohoo! I’m on Chapter 7, and Aydan has just discovered something unsettling about one of her fellow agents.
Author Diane Henders 
Birds were eating our lettuce plants. Tanya put plastic netting over the garden box and that stopped them. We only have a small garden, five boxes and several bags. My main worry was to keep Lucky from digging in the dirt.
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I can imagine that Lucky could do a LOT of damage in a very short time! Even our chicken-wire enclosure wouldn’t be strong enough to keep out a determined German Shepherd. 🙂
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Oh my goodness! That sounds frustrating and funny. Birds. I’ve got a few blue jays I’m always battling and some tiny birds that have decided to tear apart the screens on our windows. I suppose, like everything in life, it’s a balance.
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That’s true. I do love the birds; and I wouldn’t actually mind sharing some of my fruit if they were better at leaving some for me. Today I picked all my cherries because the robins (smart birds that they are) figured out how to breach the netting that was protecting the tree. At least they waited until the cherries were ripe! 🙂
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On the bright side, you got it figured out regardless of how long it took you!! LOL….cracked me up !! Thanks for sharing…made my day!!
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I’m glad you got some laughs! And I’m glad I finally figured it out — I was really starting to question my own sanity for a while there. 🙂
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Having that problem here with a robin who’s made a nest in our eaves trough of all places, which is only about 10 feet from the strawberries.
This bird has taken it a step further though as she steels berries that are still green!.
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Definitely a bird-brain! 😉 But I bet she thinks she’s pretty smart, locating her home only a short hop away from the ‘grocery store’.
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You know that there are deer on the island? Don’t say what next, my sister used to live outside Victoria and they were constantly fighting the deer in their garden.
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The deer are a giant pain in the butt here. There’s a huge population of them, and they wander through town and along the highways, completely fearless (read ‘stupid’). People in town have a real problem with them destroying gardens because most town bylaws won’t allow a fence tall enough to keep deer out. We put up an 8′ tall deer fence first thing, and so far they’ve left our garden alone. Thank goodness.
But I was shocked to discover that there are elk on the Island! Roosevelt elk are the largest species in Canada, and they’re (apparently) native to Vancouver Island alone. It was a hell of a surprise to see them wandering along our road! 🙂
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Perhaps there were bird seeds mixed in with the vegetable seeds.
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Aha! That might explain a few things! 🙂
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I’m glad to read that you’re writing again and found a solution for the berry picking difficulties. How’s your back doing? Getting any better?
It’s humbling to discover that (certain) animals are smarter than us. But, then again, if we had to be more creative to survive, I’m sure we could outsmart them!
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That’s true — the birds are only an annoyance to me, not a threat. If they were a threat, this would be a whole different kinda blog post. 😉
My back is slowly improving, thanks. I’m still not able to do as much as I want to, but I can do a lot more than I could last year. I’m calling it a (provisional) win!
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I love strawberry season! This year was a little dry, so the berries ran smaller, but they were so sweet! I live in the palm Michigan, you know) and it got smoky HERE! Hope you’re all fine!
Love your books! Cannot wait for 18!
Hoping against hope that they eventually pick John to administrate the Silverside facility, he has real world experience, but he also wants to be a good dad!
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Thanks, Mindy! I hope your air has cleared by now — I looked at the FireSmoke map and was amazed (and horrified) at the extent of the smoke all across the continent. We’re feeling lucky to be on the west coast, since all the smoke seems to go east; but I feel badly for everyone suffering through smoky skies.
I’m having fun throwing situations at the new Director in this book! John might end up with a job offer yet… 😉
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It’s amazing to me how small a hole a bird can get through. We have an enclosure for our cats – the catio – made from a chainlink fence. The cats can’t get out, but the other day one of my darling kitties came into the house with a bird. I wondered how a bird could get into the catio. A few days later I was in the catio with the cats and saw a small bird jump through the chainlink and on to a sunflower we have growing in there. I was amazed at the agility of the bird and at it’s stupidity to jump into a cage full of cats …
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Bird-brains, no doubt. 😉 I was surprised that the towhee got in, too — they’re the same size as robins overall, but I guess they’re slimmer. Or maybe smarter. Preserve me from smart birds…
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Smiling. The much maligned bird brain is sadly more than a match for mine.
It is the sulphur crested cockatoos (sulphur crested vandals) that defeat me here. They dig up the spring bulbs and take a healthy bite and discard them. If they have missed any and they have the audacity to bloom the vandals behead and shred said blooms.
I now have a pump action water pistol that lives (loaded) on the front veranda.
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That’s a perfect solution! Good clean fun for you, and a harmless deterrent to the feathered vandals. I’m growling in sympathetic frustration at the destruction of your beautiful bulbs!
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We’ve eliminated the vegetables from the yard since I had severe problems with mildew–when it attacked the jalapeño plants with a vengeance, I knew I was fighting a losing battle. Prior to that, the only real problem I had were rabbits–the Rabbit Guard fencing was made of wire similar to that used for chicken wire, but the gaps on the bottom half of the fence were much closer together. Even so, there was once or twice I found a rabbit in there with no clue how it got in. When I tried planting in containers, rats would eat the tomatoes the second they would start to turn color from green. Hanging baskets didn’t work either–one day the birds ate all the tomatoes in three hanging baskets just after they turned a nice red.
I like to think that we won the battle but lost the war–we won against the critters but lost the veggies. I still can’t find tomatoes for sale anywhere that match the flavors of the heirloom tomatoes I used to grow.
Some I know who grow gardens in rural areas not too far away have a big issue with the deer overpopulation in our area–they’ve eaten gardens, and even flower beds. And when I lived across town, near a protected wetlands, I had a groundhog eat every single plant in the garden down to a nub. Burying a fence part way would do no good, as he’d just dig under it. At least the garter snake that slithered across the deck didn’t each much, and the frog I found sitting on top of the roof gutter only made odd noises when he was inside the downspout (we’d heard a strange metallic croaking sound all day long until he emerged at dusk). Mr. and Mrs. Duck lasted only a half hour when they realized the puddles in the backyard (after a wet Spring) weren’t suitable for nesting.
I would bet you’d be OK with any kind of thin wire fencing above the garden area–snow should fall through most of it. For extra protection on the sides, you could double up–offset a second pass of the fencing just enough to meet the gaps on the existing fencing halfway. At least it keeps the birdbrains out!
Critters are overrated. 😁
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That’s very true! I like the birds when they’re singing happily in the trees, and I wouldn’t even mind sharing a few berries; but critters just aren’t good at sharing.
The first thing we did when we moved here was to put up an 8′ pagewire deer fence all around our yard. A few deer breached it in the early years, but fortunately they’re creatures of habit. The fence was just enough of an impediment that it was easier for them to go around; and that’s what they’ve been doing for the past few years. They could still get over it if they were serious about it, but they just don’t bother. Same with the bears. (So far, at least. Fingers crossed!)
We had originally thought we’d be able to leave the roof netting in place, too; but our first couple of winters proved us wrong. The snow here comes down in giant sticky flakes, and it accumulates even on stucco wire with 1.5″ gaps. The area is 25′ x 60′, and the snow not only dragged down the roof netting, but also bent the steel poles that were supporting it. Oops! 🙂
I feel for your lack of fresh tomatoes — that just sucks! I hope we don’t get overrun by hungry critters the way you did.
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