Mary

The day before yesterday, my garden was visited by a lovely pair of doves.  They were so sweet, walking about on my planters.  It didn't really bother me, since I figured that there weren't any seeds out there I anticipated growing anyhow.  I saw them again Friday morning, got some photos, and said to myself and Josh, "Aw, how cute.  We should get a bird feeder."  Then, of course, Friday night I realized that I did have some new seedlings out there, so I regretted a little bit not chasing the doves away.  Well, anyhow, this morning, I go out to look at my plants and I notice that someone has eaten all the leaves off of one of my poor little baby pea plants!  I thought of the doves and cursed them.  Then I went back inside.  A little later, a cute little bird with a red head came to visit my garden, followed shortly by his lady friend (another little bird that looked just the same except for being plain).  You know, I'm used to seeing doves coming and going in pairs, they are such romantic birds... but I don't normally see it in other birds (Guess maybe other birds I normally see don't do it?  Or maybe there are so many of them I don't notice that they come and go in pairs).  Birds that come and go in pairs always make me smile... as silly as that is... or maybe not silly, I smile when I see human couples out together too.  I guess we don't call them "love birds" for nothing.  But anyhow, I watched them to see what they would do.  They flew up to the light fixture at first, and made me wonder if they were crazy enough to be thinking of building a nest there.  Then, they flew to the planter of peas.  And started pecking at them!  At that point I started moving fast and scared them away.  They flew to the tree right outside our apartment.  Josh came in and I pointed them out to him.  Then I went outside and informed them that they are not allowed to eat my pea plants, but I'd be happy to get them bird seed.  I don't know if they understood.  I think perhaps I should buy some chicken wire or something to make cages around my peas (and anything else that ends up showing signs of being nibbled on), at least until they get more mature (the peas that is--I think the birds are as mature as they are going to get).  I still do kind of want to get a bird feeder too, but I'm not sure that's a good idea as a way to keep the birds from eating my plants.  As Josh pointed out, I might just attract enough birds that they can't all eat at the feeder at once and some of them will decide to have some salid while they are waiting... that putting out a feeder for the birds might be about as effective as leaving out a bag of sugar to keep the ants away. 

Edit: Mr. and Mrs. House Finch were back after we went to the grocery store. Apparently they wont be easily deterred. Especially since I don't really want to deter them, I just want them to stop eating my seedlings.