Picky Eaters

[Jackaroo]

Spent most of the day in the wilderness we call a garden. Have been neglecting my fruit bushes of late so went to check on them. They're fairly modest, a couple of white-currant bushes and a couple of gooseberry. I haven't bothered with netting them this year and, lo and behold, the currants have been stripped clean and the green gooseberrys have been pecked about a bit. However, the red gooseberries haven't been touched! Now, these particular goosies are really delicious and sweet, even the skins are nowhere near as tart as the regular article and I usually scoff them like grapes. The only reason I can think of for the birds turning up their beaks at them is that the skins, even when fully ripe,as they are, are quite thick and moderately tough though not that tough that they would resist a determined sparrow or blackbird or whatever. So, I will try an experiment tomorrow. I'll lay out a pile of these, frankly, superior fruits on the slabs close to the feeders and halve some of them for easy access just to see if this encourages the birds to make an effort to get into the rest. If they still manage to resist them that's fine by me, all the more for me. lol. Keep you posted.

[solus]

Lucky you, having some gooseberries left! Mine (sweet, red "Whinham's Industry") were all scoffed by a family of greedy Blackbirds before they were fully ripe, when they were just turning from green to red. I was so looking forward to some jam and a pie or two and....

My fruits weren't all that big and I don't suppose the thickness or otherwise of the skins was a problem as I think they were just swallowed whole! The undigested seeds along with a pretty red/purple surround were then deposited on my garden chairs - like adding insult to injury!

[Jackaroo]

Update: Well, it would seem that the birds don't mind my big red fuzzy goose-gogs just so long as they're opened up for them. Out of the pile I laid out for them today all the fruit I'd sliced open are reduced to just skin. The whole ones have just been shoved around a bit and left whole. It may be that because it's Summer and the usual grub(s) is in abundance there isn't the same motivation. What we seem to have here are lazy birds!!! As I said earlier, it's all the more for me. Mind you I'm getting a bit of a rumbly in my tumbly after all them goosies. Gotta run, bye

[Kayleigh]

If you freeze a few then come winter include them in a fat cake they will really appreciate you and you may even attract some rarer visitors..

You need to visit PMG.s thread..give her some tips..