Birdie Num Nums

In the ongoing battle to defend one's berry patch against the avian horde, care has to be exercised that one doesn't fatally trap the birdie in one's net. If you are going to grow birdie num nums, prepare to succeed occasionally and fail often. I have given up netting the loganberries on the fence but they are so prolific the birds always leave enough for us.The deer outside the fence finish off the outside leaves. Straw berries are easier to net and the birds don't get caught. We just lay the nets on the top of the plants.Now that they are finished , I have mowed the patch to encourage new growth. Raspberries are impossible for me to effectively net. Birds always seem to get in, but the few robins do little damage since the berries come on so fast. I am ambivalent about berry eating birds since we have such a congregation, but I guess it's just about food source. I can't blame them, and must avoid raising the ire of the bird lover's chorus.We have two sweet cherry trees and never get a cherry but they are both crow food and robins, who wait and only come when the crows are full. I would do the same if I were a robin. I have spent the last three days patching holes in the blueberry nets. I'm winning. For the pianist and I, blueberries are people num nums, and our friends come to pick as well. We draw the line at blueberries. The birds are voracious over blueberries and it seems mainly, to be the young, speckled breasted robins that think,since they were born here, this is their place, so they are incautious and brazen. The bird frustration index for me on the scale of 10 is, sweet cherries 9 , red currants 9, black currants 6, sour cherries 6, loganberries 6, raspberries 6, gooseberries 3 blueberries 3, strawberries 1. Oh well, there's only so many pies and jams and jellies that you can eat!