My 10-year-old tree was 20’ wide by 30’ tall 
I expect I have more birds than you do, I have had a tasty treat smorgasbord set up in my yard for over 20 years and have probably grown my own little population.
The Kokuso just finished ripening the last fruits and the birds were just starting to mass as it finished. Perfect timing!
Getting a second flush of fruit on most of the everbearing types here.
First wave on IE was mostly lost to Popcorn Disease. Less affected fruits on this second flush, but we were exceedingly dry for a while there, which may have diminished fungal spore production.
Silk Hope and Corral are producing their typical heavy crops of extremely tasty fruits. Earlier in the season, I did find a couple of fruits on Silk Hope with a couple of drupelets infected with PD… so I can no longer hope that it is immune to the infection… but possibly somewhat resistant… or it may just be a matter of time until all of my albaXrubra hybrids are affected.
Stearns is bearing sparingly - but it’s only in its third leaf, so I’m hoping it steps up its game in coming years, as the fruit is very tasty and of good size.
The local M.rubra (Harmony Grove) that I’ve had grafted & growing here for 20+ yrs has been fruiting over a much longer timeframe than usual.
@scottsmith – Your tree was roughly the same size as mine, so yes you must have more birds. You poor guy!
FWIW, my worst bird pest is Catbirds. Robins also love berries. Other species are a minor problem. But a single squirrel is equivalent to a flock of birds.
those two do a number, but here no one can match these bandits:
the cedar waxwings show up like clockwork as soon as the wild strawberries come ripe. watching them go to work on a bush is harrowing. they hang upside down and methodically go through until picked clean. they flock together. have had 20 some years. its a flock of 13 this year. i see them stripping the white currants already even though theyre still green.
my running theory is you just have to plant so many berries that they can’t possibly get them all
Cedar waxwing is a beautiful bird. I’ve seen it here only fleetingly. I’ve seen many more on canoe fishing trips near you in VT. At the time, I wished that they were more common in my neighborhood. You’ve made me thankful that they are not.
My next major project is bird netting. I’ve already got the materials ordered for a cover over my 18 blueberry bushes. I jury-rigged something for my Gerardi dwarf mulberries. And I desperately need a cover for my honey berries.
Your leaves don’t seem to have the 3 fingers as mine.
Hmm. I’ve noticed that sometimes mulberry leaves are fingered like fig leaves, sometimes they are not.
I have 100% confidence in my variety though— I got my scionwood from @marta. I also got some later wood from USDA directly. I haven’t carefully looked at the leaf shape on those yet.
What cultivar are you talking about?
It is DMOR9.
I’ll take a picture of my leaves
It’s interesting that the graft of “Shelli” from you seems to have the opposite pattern. This is near the start of the flush:
And the newest leaves:
Unfortunately the Shelli I distributed is not the real Shelli but something producing small amounts of light colored fruits. I checked with the source I got this accession from and they confirmed the mistake. Unfortunately they and I started distributing this accession before confirming the fruit type. The only good thing about this fake Shelli is that it roots very easily. I planted 4 of these in my orchard and now will have to top work them. Probably can be used as rootstock for any other mulberry. Roots from both the green and the dormant cuttings.
What a shame! What about the Galicia?
I planted my Morus nigra about two weeks ago. It had been two winters exposed in a pot and was growing nicely. I wadered by it today, and apparently deer like it as it has almost no leaves left and lots of crushed branch tips. 
It rooted easily for me as well, 100% success (2 of 2) from dormant cuttings.
obviously any ‘Shelli’ is questionable now in light of this. should we understand this to mean that all Shelli in the US is ersatz? did you import this variety or has it been available through other sources? i received some scionwood from Ukraine (by way of another) last yearand more this year. i thought Shelli might have been in there but it wasnt. Galicia was though.
do you have the real McCoy now?
