Hungry birds are becoming the bane of my allotment life. This week I'm going to stretch an old net curtain over the onions, shallots, peas and broadbeans now that some of these enterprising creatures have taken to their taste. Almost overnight they've pecked at the seedlings and helped themselves. My neighbours too have an array of impressive bird-control scaring devices; a cute pink scarecrow, tinker bells, toy windmills and a row of Tricolour flags. Birds, especially the Narraghmore crows, are smart creatures. Let's not underestimate them. I'm guessing they'll soon learn that scaring devices represent not real danger, so I'm going to improvise using a variety of devices and replacing or moving them around from time to time. Clearly this is one of the first signs of allotment madness!
