Garden Suspect... In Theft of Blueberries!

We really like blueberries... and have a few bushes in our yard.... The problem is that we are not the only ones who like those blueberries. sigh.


Beautiful blueberry blossoms indicated a  good amount of blueberries for this season. We sure looked forward to harvesting them.

 They ripen at different times so we check them every day when they are starting to ripen. 

Most years, the birds eat so many of them that we don't get many at all. This year, my husband started picking them early... and they were a bit sour, but at least WE were eating them. :)

 Even some of the nice looking blue ones were still not sweet, but we enjoyed them anyway.

 What fun to see so many blueberries out there this year... and to be able to actually eat many of them.

  This week, I found about 5 of these beetles on the bushes and we killed as many of them as we could, but some got away. 

This is not a good thing to find Japanese Beetles as they can cause lots of damage. We will be careful to watch for them and kill them as we can. No, we will not be using pesticides, but will try to control them naturally.

 We keep checking and enjoying blueberries though, BUT... we have started to find blueberries with part of it gone... and suspected birds.

 When I was in the garden taking pictures yesterday, I was startled by this guy flying close to me to fly by the blueberry bush I was near. 

Then he landed on the fence.... and acted so innocent. (Notice the dark stuff on his beak... it is evidence!)

 Then he quickly took off again... and went back to the fence to sit and look innocent. Then I noticed the blueberry in his beak. I can't believe how fast he could fly through and get a blueberry or a part of one. 

It was also strange that I was standing only about 4 feet or so from where he was getting the blueberries, showing he wasn't scared of me being there. I guess those blueberries were just too enticing.


 So... when I saw the picture of the blueberry all over his beak, I made a fun picture and sent it to my family members on email. They laughed.

Now, lest you become alarmed that I am truly waging war on birds, rest assured that I do like birds and have written many blog posts showing that. Here are a few of them, if you want to click on the link and see the blog posts:

Cardinals Raise Their Young

Baby Birds and Baby Humans

Busy Bird Bath House

God Feeds the Birds... a Bread Stick?

Like Baby Birds

Birds of the Air

Beautiful Cardinals

These are just some of the posts I have written about birds... backyard birds. There are many others, including about a Blue Heron, Black Swans, Geese... and more. So.... I am NOT a bird hater. Please don't assume that I am. 

Sometimes we put netting on the blueberry bushes to protect them... other times, we have used a blow up "eye" that is supposed to scare the birds. We have used an owl statue in the garden... and old CDs or streamers blowing in the wind. They are persistent though... and they like our blueberries... and our blackberries... and the tomatoes and strawberries... and more. 

SO....  I am choosing to laugh about it and plan to do better again next year. :)  This year is so busy and I am thankful we were able to eat as many of the blueberries as we did... and we will keep checking the bushes each day in case the birds leave any for us!

  If you garden, you may also face sharing your produce with the birds. How do you deal with them? Have you found some great ideas... or some that didn't work too well?  Please feel free to share in the comments. 

Thank you for visiting. I hope you have a wonderful week.   🙂





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