Weapons in the Cherry War

Those of you who follow my facebook and twitter feeds will know that this year the birds have been particularly determined to strip our cherry tree of cherries before I have chance to pick them. We usually have a few take an interest but as our garden backs onto the allotment site and this is lined with a hedgerow full of wild cherries, we usually find that there is plenty of other sources of food to keep them occupied. I can only assume that this year's increase in bird activity is due to our neighbour being particularly keen to feed the birds. I think this has probably increased the number of birds in the area and, as they fly over to reach this reliable food source, they couldn't help but spot our cherries.

As a principle, I don't mind feeding the birds, and I wouldn't mind too much if they helped themselves to the odd cherry or two. What I find somewhat annoying is that they start to peck at them well before they are ripe and that they take one bite and then discard the rest of it, coming back later to peck another perfect one. Usually it is just a blackbird or two but this year we had blackbirds, a whole troop of starlings, a couple of magpies, some pigeons, blue tits and a jay!

There isn't an awful lot that can be done about this. The tree is too big to cover with netting and I have heard that birds can get themselves tangled up in the netting anyway and I don't much fancy dealing with that. We have strung a load of CDs into the tree as bird scarers but, given that the young starlings wouldn't even budge when I was in the garden, unless I threw a bit of gravel in their direction, it is hardly surprising that the CDs don't make much of a deterrent. Instead, we spent a fair bit of time dashing out into the garden, clapping our hands and shouting. Steve even rigged up a few empty plastic bottles with some gravel in the bottom into the tree which could be jiggled up and down from the conservatory and greenhouse thanks to several meters of string.

Despite all this I have managed to bag about 4 or 5 pounds of cherries from the tree this year but I am relieved that there aren't any on the tree anymore so I can relax. Mind you, this morning I had to chase a squirrel out of the hazelnut tree. Here we go again!

Anyway, given all this, we have a tendency to hoard old CDs and DVDs and a while ago I came across a lovely idea on the internet for making CDs owls and I have fancied making them ever since. So, today, when the weather was too wet to allow me to pick the soft fruit that would otherwise be demanding my attention, I decided to use the CD owls as a perfect excuse to sit down with my girls for a bit of crafting. We used 2 CDs per bird, cutting one up to form wings, plus some jam jar lids (I've got plenty of those!), crown caps from beer bottles and some old buttons.

My girls are 10 and 11 and pretty skilled with their hands but should you be doing this with younger children, there are certain parts that need to be done by an adult. Because they are intended for outdoor use, you will need some suitable glue - I opted to use a glue gun but care needs to be used when using these as they get hot. CDs are quite hard to cut too but can be done with sharp scissors and strong hands, although they can crack unexpectedly when doing it so it is handy to have some spares. So really, allow your child to arrange all the bits to make their owl but then assemble it yourself. The hardest part was deciding what to use to make the beak. I opted for an old toggle off a coat, but we also tried a piece of plastic cut out of a margarine tub, and a bit of broken CD. Unless you particularly like using a drill, I would recommend leaving at least some of the central hole clear so that you can thread the string through it so that you can hang up the finished owls.

We made an owl each in about half an hour and by the time we had finished, the sun had come out for a brief show so I strung them up in the cherry tree. They are certainly more fun and more attractive than the other CDs hanging from it and who knows, it might just fool the birds into thinking they are being watched by those big eyes... or maybe not!