Some people never learn. A year ago the 'grow your own loaf" project failed when the wheat crop was mysteriously flattened. Could it have been sabotage or was it the birds? So we tried again this year, with rattly bottles and string stretched between posts that needed to be raised higher and higher as the crop grew. All was well until the crop started ripening. The height in the top picture is about 6 inches below the peak a week or so earlier and the grains have been stripped:
I have the evidence that it wasn't crop failure:
Without the intervention of human force (The school hasn't had pupils since March) those birds have just been waiting. The jackdaws are top of my list of culprits. They also love horticultural fleece which they shred and presumably use for nesting material. Here's one I caught on camera with a beakfull:
They also view labels and leeks and any new planting really, as a challenge to be tugged out of the ground and discarded. Oddly the allotments don't suffer from the same birds - It's pigeons there.
At any rate the staff of life will have to wait for another year - and high security.
Rolling Stones permitting, here is the only song to match this campaign:
Title is good.
ReplyDeleteIf a bit tortuous.
DeleteJackdaws are resourceful birds. Pigeons are just nuisances
ReplyDeletePigeons are brassica fiends.
DeleteThe similar case was happened on my broccoli patch. All beautiful and fresh curd disappeared in one night. That's a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that Endah. Yes, a nightmare!
DeletePesky birds, sorry about your wheat, but I do love to see jackdaws - they're just so pretty :-)
ReplyDelete