Birds clearly know their berries

I thought I’d do a quick ‘photo audit’ of what is in flower and fruit in my new garden at the moment and the answer is…not a lot!

Of course, that makes me very happy because I know I can make a huge difference in the years to come.

On the flower front, White Dead-nettles are having a late flush of flower.

Notice the leaf-mine in the big lower leaf, looking like a wiggly pale trail. I suspect this is an active mine, in which the larvae of a tiny leaf-mining fly is munching the narrow layer between the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf.

There is a bit of Feverfew.

And that’s it flower-wise!

On the fruit front, the Kiwi fruit are resolutely rock hard.

While the Tutsan berries don’t seem to be flavour of the month for wildlife.

But the thing that intrigued me was this: a red-berried Pyracantha heaving with berries.

Yet next to my driveway is an orange-berried Pyracantha that has almost been stripped bare by Blackbirds and Blackcaps. These were the last few berries I could find still on the large bush.

What do the birds know that we don’t?! The literature might suggest that, in general, red berries are taken before orange on all sorts of plants. But clearly in my garden there is something quite distasteful about the red-berried kind, even though they look perfectly ripe.

I’d love to hear your theories as to what might be putting the birds off. I will be watching with interest to see if and when the birds finally deign to eat them!