never saw a gull or cormorant here until 20-30 yrs ago. now theyre thick on all waterways. even too many loons. was fishing a local 100acre pond and counted 32 while trolling around.
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Time for berry cages. I’m considering adding an enclosure for my blueberries next year.
Could be that wetland acreage further south has dried up.
must have been a grizzly or a very desperate black bear.
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My black raspberries are not quite ripe yet, they are in that greenish color now. So by the end of the month. My black raspberries are just as dependable with no spraying at all. The only times I do not get a crop is if we get some sort of back frost/freeze during their blooming period- which happened last year.
My peaches are looking few and far between but perhaps I will have some to eat. Apples look okay but bug bitten because we had so much rain in a row. Rain one day, drizzle, and high winds above 15 mph off and on for about two weeks when I should have sprayed. Perhaps I will have enough to at least taste and make apple butter with.
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I was using the botanical definition of “berry,” rather than the culinary one, which I will gladly admit is a ridiculous thing to do:
Me too!
Same here, hasn’t been a problem in years past either. We’ve got a lot of wild black raspberries and the ones I expect to be ripe, are not there the next day… Think they may have gotten some of my (severely limited because of a poorly timed 10F night) blueberries too. Ugh.
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There are more birds than in a long time over much of our continent. Locally it is the geese and the ducks that are out of proportion to the amount of wetlands we have. I believe Avian flu is natures answer to over population. We had a large old hawk in our yard that looked next to dead with magpies circling. We phoned wildlife and they said probably bird flu, they were accepting birds of prey for testing, but were over whelmed and we would have to bring it in. Never did find a body, but I assume it has passed. I sure hope the magpies got sick too!
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crows are the worst here. way too many. my.22 is cheap to shoot so i cull them continuously. keeps my shooting skills sharp. they all get composted but with the bird flu, i burn them with kero.
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This evenings raspberry harvest… and a few illini blackberries turning black already.
We got about 30 loganberry too… not in the pic… in the jam pot already.
Edit… add later… 2 half pints of raspberry chia jam.
TNHunter
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How are your berries so plentiful? I am amazed. Any words of wisdom for an old girl with unproductive blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries? Where to start?
what varieties are you growing Regina? what do you use for fertilizer? ive noticed in Trevs pics he has wonderful loam there. im jealous! mine grow well on clay but i need to grow in mounds or on slopes for drainage. i mulch with chic manure bedding covered with woodchips every couple years. i mulch every spring. they love mulch esp. in your zone as they like cool roots. the Heritage raspberries he has are a very productive heirloom. i had them here but the fall crop got froze out most years so i removed them.
@Rosdonald and @steveb4 …
I do have pretty good soil but my location is a ridge top in southern TN. My good soil is 3-4 inch deep at best… and I would call that a loamy clay soil…
But where that ends I have this nasty sticky red clay that is rock and boulder filled…
I have been living in this location for 20+ years and early on figured out a pretty good way to deal with my lack of good soil depth… and that was to make raised beds… borderless raised beds… and in those raised beds I add lots of organic matter, compost hay, grass clippings, etc to improve the soil.
The YT Vid below shows the end result of my largest raised bed construction project… it is 90 ft long and 4 ft wide.
Many of the berry pics I am posting now those berries are growing in that bed… along with lots of fruit trees and other cane and bush fruit.
To make that bed… I used my tiller and broke up an area 90 ft long x 8 ft wide… but only about 4 inch deep.
For two months I mowed the grass around that ares so that all the grass clippings for a large area around that were cast onto that area… 2 months worth of grass clippings piled on there… then I broke it up one more time and then raked it all up (heavy garden rake) into a 90 x 4 ft raised bed.
I then put 12 bales of hay on top… and waited a couple more months and put 10 more bales of hay on top.
Yes… some effort went in to that.
I did that all in the late spring summer and fall of 2019… and it sit there all winter… while all those grass clippings composted in place…
Spring of 2020. I planted that entire bed just full of stuff… including my first 6 raspberry plants.
I do not possess any special skills at growing berries that I know of… but effort and location… and just a plain ole Love for growing things may explain my success at that.
Good luck to you !!!
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@TNHunter , @steveb4 I enjoyed the video. I do almost nothing for the berries. I have written down what they are but couldn’t tell you without my notes. How ironic I’m OCD when it comes to my trees but a bad roommate when it comes to the berries. I pretty much had written them off.
I have a long run of grasses that used to hide a pool that’s no longer here (long before I came). Pieces have died and I’ve borrowed from it to make a small grass hedge along one side of the property. It has no meaning for me and is actually a big weed eating nightmare.
There are only two original large clumps of grass left. The others have been subdivided and easily moved. I could use those elsewhere, then use my tiller to break up the ground. I need some hay (probably not straw) for my chickens and this area, unlike the current one, is next to the garden and easily watered. This area is also near my shaded yard area where grass grows higher than elsewhere and tends to pile up.
I sense a plan coming together. You both have given new inspiration and good ideas. Ill post a pic tomorrow of the current spot and my progress.
Thanks! 
Added note:. I always end up having to correct spelling or grammar and I swipe to type. It originally said I would use my toilet to break up the ground. That would be a video worth posting!
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lol! hate spell check sometimes.
Very Funny… I got a new phone a few months back and the texting kbd gives me fits… I spend more time correcting stuff and fighting auto correct than communicating.
Put more berries in the freezer fridge and made 2 half pints of jam.
Have a 3 yr old coming over this evening for some berry picking and eating.
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