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Why no berries on Holly this year?

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  • delskidelski Posts: 274
    Maybe it is birds.   
    Aye the birds are going mental this year. I have holly berries but the crows have been ripping my lawn (and the neighbour's!) to shreds when they've never done that before.
  • SueAtooSueAtoo Posts: 380
    Lots of holly berries in dorset.......until I want them next week!
    East Dorset, new (to me) rather neglected garden.
  • delski said:

    Aye the birds are going mental this year. I have holly berries but the crows have been ripping my lawn (and the neighbour's!) to shreds when they've never done that before.
    Yes, there's another thing, my lawn has been devastated too by summat. I'd assumed foxes but maybe birds again?
    Don't see many crows in the garden, but we gets scores of magpies. Same family.

    Just another day at the plant...
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Magpies dig about in the grass too. The ones in my garden seem to be coming up with worms and slugs. I suppose the wet weather has brought them to the surface.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Maybe digging up the lawn cos there are no holly berries to gorge on...



    Just another day at the plant...
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    More likely to be looking for leatherjackets if they're at the grass  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • We are in Shropshire, and I think this is our best ever year for holly berries.  Our daughter lives 5 miles away however and they have no berries.  I agree it is due to birds eating / not eating them. Since retirement my husband has been providing every form of bird feed known to man, filling the feeders every morning and topping up as required - the birds are just not interested in holly berries, although the blackbirds and starlings had all the berries off what I think is a pyracantha.  Even the pigeons lurk under the tree which most of the feeders hang from and pick up what's fallen down!
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I know, in the spring, birds go for the blossom buds. We never see a cherry plum blossom. Maybe the birds have eaten the blossom buds so no berries.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • @pansyface Things will only get worse, I'm afraid.  Word gets round quickly in the avian community so we have far more birds visiting the garden than we ever had when working and this means more feed has to be purchased to keep up - just hope the pensions will stretch to accommodate them!! On the plus side though, we are regularly visited by a woodpecker and a pied wagtail (terrible bully) as well as all manner of finches, tits and the usual lbjs.  
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    edited December 2020
    That's something I've been wondering. I wonder things. That's my thing.
    If a tit or a sparrow finds a new bird feeder, do they rush off and tell their friends or do they keep it to themselves?I

    Ps. I think herons are really creepy - especially when they are flying
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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