Bird Netting

As my tomatoes started ripening I started noticing something. I would go out in the morning to see the orange/red tomatoes with gouges out of them. The gouges looked suspiciously like bird pecks. Dang, it hate that! They take them before they are quite ripe and ruin them for us.

So off to the hardware store we went to buy some bird netting. First we had to pick off all the ruined tomatoes. Then we placed it over our plants. It was draped carefully and evenly. The bird netting had to overlap the ground on all sides - quite a task. Doug wasn't so worried about the bird netting needing to be completely to the ground but I was. So I made sure it was secured down with rocks.

But even after we completed the bird netting barrier I suspected that birds might be getting in somehow. Why? Because I still found pecked tomatoes. Not so many as before but every once in a while. Had I missed getting those off the plant originally? No - it looked like a fresh peck.

Well anyway a couple days ago I went out to fine a frantic bird trapped in the bird netting with no way to escape. There it was the dang tomato loving bird. Caught you red handed! Or red beaked! Anyway, it was jumping and trying to fly with no where to go. But immediately instead of wanting to roast that bird for dinner - I was sorry for the bird. So I carefully lifted a portion of the bird netting and then walked to the other side to encourage the bird to go that way. And before I could even see the bird escape - it was gone! Sure enough it had feasted on a few of my ripening tomatoes. Dang bird!