peterography

I don’t want readers of my blog to think that gardening, for me, is just an endless battle with squirrels and groundhogs. No, sometimes it’s a battle with birds.

I love birds. I’m a card-carrying member of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and I even have the Peterson’s Field Guide Eastern/Central Bird Songs Collection as MP3’s on my iPod. But when they go after my blueberries, relations become, let’s say, a little strained.

My blueberries extend down several terraces of my hillside garden and so are hard to net without an elaborate framing system. In years past the birds have taken so many berries that I didn’t even have enough left for a muffin. Then, a few years ago I hit on a new scarecrow strategy - helium-filled party balloons. The first year it was Tweety Bird and the outcome was this:

Last year it was Shrek, with similar happy results.

In general a good scarecrow balloon should have an irregular shape so that it presents a varying aspect to the birds. It should be big, and preferably have a few appendages hanging down. It should be tied down loosely enough to bounce and move about a bit in the wind, but not so loosely that it gets tangled up in the agriculture. Another important feature is “eyes”. Many birds are wired up to fear anything that looks like a pair of eyes - I suppose because it reminds them of predators. Some moths and butterflies capitalize on this and have circular designs on their wings.

My blueberries have just started to come in and it looks like it will be a good harvest. So this year I got a 4 foot “Elmo” balloon. I’m not quite sure who Elmo is - a character from a children’s TV show, I think - I don’t watch TV. I don’t know if he’s a good guy or a bad guy or a member of SAG or whether he’s controversial or just checked out of rehab or whether he supported the Iraq invasion. And frankly, I don’t care; I’m willing to put the past behind us as long as he does a good job guarding my berries.