Freaked Out Turdus Fledgling
Recently, I’ve been writing about birds as beneficials. Now, I’m going to tell the tale of birds-gone bad. Fledglings I’m ready to kick out of the nest. Honestly, if they don’t leave of their own accord pdq, I may have to send the cat after them.
Okay, so I’m grumpy. The weather isn’t helping. It’s June, and we’re living in the gloom. Gray. Damp. Cold. Gloom.
It’s too cold to put tomatoes in the ground. Slugs are everywhere. Rain is falling. And falling. and falling. The greenhouse, in full, bright-gray sunlight at mid-day, is barely 70F.
Despite the lack of blues skies and warmth on days with 9pm sunsets, I try to find a silver lining around the spitting, roof-battering thick carpet of cloud above.
At least my strawberries and sugar snaps are coming on. It isn’t hail. The beets look pretty good, despite a bit of leaf miner damage. The birds and bees sure are cute. Purple carrots are near-ready for thinning. Even my edamame is germinating. The garlic, despite a few bulbs rotting in cold, wet containers last week, seems to have recovered under the protection of some binder-clip rigged plastic sheeting. The blueberries are heavier with fruit than ever before. Even the broccoli is beginning to form heads.
But those damn birds!
They had to go and ruin it all for me. Looking all cute in their speckled, russet, baby-bird down. Exiting the nest. Learning to fly. Finding their way in the big, scary world. (more…)
