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["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Any new birds in the area?  Wrens are very territorial and if one moved in near the Amelanchier, it would drive off all the other birds.  I knew of a commercial blueberry grower who put a wren house at each corner of an acre plot and they kept the place essentially clear of birds.  Wrens are insect eaters, so they don't bother the fruit.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
On Jun 23, 2006, at 4:57 PM, tanis grif wrote:

That 'Regent' planting was NOT harvested by robins this year.  The owner says these
are normally harvested by robins before the berries are anywhere near ripe.  My
friend says there is nothing different that she can think of this year which would
cause them to avoid her bushes.  Yet at my house (30 miles away, in woods rather
than town), the robins are stripping slightly ripe berries off of Amel shrubs they
never bothered before.  Has anyone else noticed such on-off feeding?  Can you
correlate it to anything?