Woke up to see about 10 robins on my netted haskap trying to figure out how to get in. Another 5 are stripping clean the honeybee haskap I didn’t net. At least 5 more are flying around looking for what else to strip. I have five large bushes and without nets by tomorrow morning I would have no berries left.
Here robins are migratory birds, they flock through here in volume and then mostly disappear. Haskaps and saskatoons are their favorite fare.
Get some hawks, this year I have no problem with birds. The hawks are claiming this territory and 1/2 mile here.
wow! we have tons of robins as well. many nest in my spruces but ive never seen them take my fruit. they are too busy eating worms out of my lawn. its been so hot and muggy i didnt net my berries or cherries and nothing has touched them so far. many that are near the ground have rotted though.
As I mentioned here they seem to be migratory. I may see one or two here and there but there is always a time in the year when they descend in full force. They can strip a bush in record time.
A bit over a week from now they’ll be gone to wherever they go next.
they are migratory here too. they show up late apr. then gone in oct. their numbers are highest in may then they seem to spread out some in early summer. on fertile lawns its not unusual to see 50 robins catching worms after a rain.
I have no idea if this will work for Robin’s, but I can attest 100% that this scares crows/ravens away very quickly. Download some audio files of owls screeching and play it whenever some birds are are around that are causing you problems. Even simply playing the owls screeching on my cell phone is enough to scatter the crows for a good long while.
It’s rather amazing how much it scares them. 
I’m pretty sure we have robins in Pennsylvania year round. I had bug netting over my haskaps and it kept them off those and my blueberries. They stripped an unnetted gooseberry (Orus 8 hybrid, not that it matters) entirely.
Here in coastal California, they tend to show up in January, eat any late apples left on the trees (Albemarle Pippin is a favorite) and disappear again within a week or so.
This is the time of the year for them here. Yesterday there were still standing on top of the net trying to figure out how to get in. I only saw one this morning. The two unnetted bushes were stripped clean in probably half a day.
Robins love Worms. Hungry ones may eat lots of things though.
Yesterday I checked the bush in the morning, found no issues. Later that day my daughter texted me frantically because three managed to find their way inside the net. Doggy caught one which of course did not end well for the bird. I do feel sad for it but I can’t help to feel happy for doggy who has been trying for years to catch a bird with no luck.
I saw them early in the spring for a month, but then they dissappeared this year.
Well the messed up thing is that they don’t stick around for long but they don’t need to stick around for long; in a day they stripped clean the two unnetted bushes and would have done the same to the other three if it wasn’t for the netting. They are as bad as locust
i wonder where they go? surely not further north?
They spend all summer here, but the worst damage they do is to the cherries. peck peck peck
I have to net my tree.
knock on wood. they havent touched my 4 cherry trees yet. they’ve been fruiting for 3 years now. picked my carmine jewel today which was loaded. no sign of bird damage.
Here they have already migrated elsewhere by the time cherries are ripe. Mine are still small and green.
I need to net both haskaps and Saskatoons. As luck has it I can use the same netting; haskaps have been blue for a while but still sweetening, Saskatoons are still green but soon to ripe. When they start doing that it is time for me to un-net the haskaps, harvest, and transfer the net to the Saskatoons.
This year I have more bird pecks than ever. I just took off about 8 golden Delicious that were perfect otherwise.
I did use them for cooked apples, but I’m determined to keep the birds from ruining my parade.
And yes, those stripped branches are from deer browsing. Everyone seems to be in on the feast. Interestingly they strip the leaves but leave the fruit intact.
The latest to the feast are Japanese beetles. I tap the tree and a cloud of them flies off. Three traps, all with new lures, and they fill up almost daily.
Robins love Blueberries and when the Robins arrive the Blueberry season is just about over.
Once they found the Blueberries they came back about the same time every year.
The wires on the electric poles and trees along the perimeter of the field had hundreds, probably more.
It was a little scary, kind of like the Alfted Hitchock movie “The Birds”
A product called Avian Control helps but we found it leaves the taste of Grape Coolaid on the fruit.
Another grower suggested that just spraying the product on the ground works too, but we never tried it.
We found a 6 toot piece of holographic bird tape attached to the top of lots of 10 foot sections of vertical PVC pipe helps too especially when used with bird distress calls. Really helps when the birds can see the and hear the deterrent. When the tape flutters in the wind it looks like a big snake. Also sends random flashes of light in all directions.
Our netting provided almost 100% bird freedom but it was time consuming and after a few years we lost our enthusiasm for setting it up.
so far the flash tape has kept the birds out of my cherries, currants and blueberries all of which decided to ripen nearly the same time. picked about 30lbs of Juliet cherries this morning. 3 more bushes to go. starting to see some brown rot showing up so need to git ’ er’ done! 
