>Tweets:
>When oganberries were ripe in my yard, there came the rascal hungry
>robins; now it's fall raspberries and the little guys are baaaa-aaaack.
>Anyone else sharing their yard and hard-won fruits (or veggies) with the
>winged ones? Also, the pyrecanthus berries are ripening, so they're
>scoping those out, too.
>Irene

In our yard, it's Indian plum berries in the spring and blackberries in the
fall. We have had flocks of robins descending lately and fighting over our
berries. The only solution I see is to have enough for both them and us,
not a problem in our yard since we have about 1/2 acre of blackberries. I
find they don't eat the ones along the trail since there is less for them to
perch on there - suits me just fine!! They REALLY seem to like the indian
plum berries in the spring. Maybe if they are eating things of yours in the
Spring you could try planting some competing berries like these that you
don't want to eat but which still look good to the robins. I may be EATING
my words (instead of my berries) soon, since we are replacing some of the
blackberry stands with huckleberries and blueberries, which I will be
disappointed if they totally strip bare. Hopefully there will still be
enough overall berry types that we can all get what we want.

The real joy is when the robins eat blackberries then come and perch on our
WHITE deck railings, leaving lovely purple splotches behind. Good thing we
LIKE the birds!!

Teresa Michelsen
temi461 at ecy.wa.gov