Human or animal?
Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 11:57 pm
We'd been eagerly awaiting our second small crop of blueberries this year. Sean even tried to pick one early even though I told him there was no way it was ready yet, and when he tasted it he sighed and we waited. A few days ago, in the course of one day between yard work, when Sean went to check Shoobie (our blueberry bush), it had been stripped bare of all but half a dozen green berries. Anything that had been remotely blue was gone. When he saw this and told me, I went over to take a look.
What upset me is I found at the base of the plant a small amount of berries that were imperfect. It looked as if someone walked into our backyard, picked anything blue, then dropped whatever wasn't good looking on the ground after they picked it.
Now it could be that the small amount of imperfects fell naturally down to the ground and I hadn't been paying attention to keep track of how many.
I also have heard of birds descending on a bush and cleaning it out, yet we'd had seen no more birds than normal, and wouldn't they have also eaten the imperfects on the ground? The day before this happened, there were definitely imperfect berries on the bush that we'd left for the birds specifically knowing they'll still eat them.
I know he definitely feels like one of our new neighbors did this. There's no real fence at that point separating our yards, just a plastic chain between two posts that is easily stepped over, or you can even go around the one pole but be brushed by greenery like their pine trees.
I originally thought maybe their young girl did so, but then realized if she was picking and eating, she would have stopped as soon as she realized they still weren't sweet. Instead it looks like someone took a bowel over, picked whatever was blue, but inspected them before putting them in the bowl, dropping them if they didn't meet muster. The child also would have had a slightly hard time reaching some of them, she's that young.
Neither of us wants to be right, but to have all of them cleaned out within 24 hours... What kills us is most of the fruit picked was still too young and wouldn't be sweet. So our crop got taken for nothing if by humans because most of it didn't even have a chance to mature.
What do folks think? Was it birds? Or do we need to build our new compost pit right up against the property line there with our new old fencing we got for free? We don't have deer here, nor bears, nor even raccoons. I have finally seen a bunny within a few blocks, but how could it reach the top branches? Sean thinks squirrels and birds would have also knocked off leaves in the process, but I'm not convinced of that. We saw chipmunks last year, but haven't seen a one this year. One feral/outdoor often cat in particular is a regular hunter in our yard. Last year he ate anything he could get his paws on. This year I've mostly seem him chasing or carrying birds and squirrels in his mouth--no chipmunks.
I bring it up now because we just did our yard rounds, and he's mad all over again. He feel like he has to keep an eye on the few berries that haven't turned blue yet or we'll lose them too. He's also starting to make noise about the blackberry bushes since most of them are on that side, though father back on the property.
I don't know what to do if it was them. I had offered some flowers to the grandmother which she never took me up on. Why would anyone think it's ok to clean us out like that? It doesn't make sense. It's also starting to make me wonder about our red raspberries, because we barely saw any return on those this year, though we had less canes that berried. I had been blaming that one type of bug, but now I don't know.
FWIW, the bulk of our black raspberries are on the other side of the property, the few on that side are pretty deep in the yard. All of our boysenberries are the farthest they could be away from them.
Your would be appreciated.
What upset me is I found at the base of the plant a small amount of berries that were imperfect. It looked as if someone walked into our backyard, picked anything blue, then dropped whatever wasn't good looking on the ground after they picked it.
Now it could be that the small amount of imperfects fell naturally down to the ground and I hadn't been paying attention to keep track of how many.
I also have heard of birds descending on a bush and cleaning it out, yet we'd had seen no more birds than normal, and wouldn't they have also eaten the imperfects on the ground? The day before this happened, there were definitely imperfect berries on the bush that we'd left for the birds specifically knowing they'll still eat them.
I know he definitely feels like one of our new neighbors did this. There's no real fence at that point separating our yards, just a plastic chain between two posts that is easily stepped over, or you can even go around the one pole but be brushed by greenery like their pine trees.
I originally thought maybe their young girl did so, but then realized if she was picking and eating, she would have stopped as soon as she realized they still weren't sweet. Instead it looks like someone took a bowel over, picked whatever was blue, but inspected them before putting them in the bowl, dropping them if they didn't meet muster. The child also would have had a slightly hard time reaching some of them, she's that young.
Neither of us wants to be right, but to have all of them cleaned out within 24 hours... What kills us is most of the fruit picked was still too young and wouldn't be sweet. So our crop got taken for nothing if by humans because most of it didn't even have a chance to mature.
What do folks think? Was it birds? Or do we need to build our new compost pit right up against the property line there with our new old fencing we got for free? We don't have deer here, nor bears, nor even raccoons. I have finally seen a bunny within a few blocks, but how could it reach the top branches? Sean thinks squirrels and birds would have also knocked off leaves in the process, but I'm not convinced of that. We saw chipmunks last year, but haven't seen a one this year. One feral/outdoor often cat in particular is a regular hunter in our yard. Last year he ate anything he could get his paws on. This year I've mostly seem him chasing or carrying birds and squirrels in his mouth--no chipmunks.
I bring it up now because we just did our yard rounds, and he's mad all over again. He feel like he has to keep an eye on the few berries that haven't turned blue yet or we'll lose them too. He's also starting to make noise about the blackberry bushes since most of them are on that side, though father back on the property.
I don't know what to do if it was them. I had offered some flowers to the grandmother which she never took me up on. Why would anyone think it's ok to clean us out like that? It doesn't make sense. It's also starting to make me wonder about our red raspberries, because we barely saw any return on those this year, though we had less canes that berried. I had been blaming that one type of bug, but now I don't know.
FWIW, the bulk of our black raspberries are on the other side of the property, the few on that side are pretty deep in the yard. All of our boysenberries are the farthest they could be away from them.
Your would be appreciated.