Last year I placed a few bird houses in and around my garden. It was my hope some of the smaller species of birds would take up residence and help control the onslaught of bad bugs like grasshoppers. I wasn't able to rent a single dwelling all year and the grasshoppers had free run of the garden.
This year, the birds have totally changed their minds. All of my bird houses are occupied and the birds are earning the free rent.
A Mockingbird built a nest under my bar-b-que grill. I removed it before she could lay eggs. If I hadn't, I would have had fried eggs the first time I cook on the grill. She rebuilt it before the day was over. I saw her perched nearby cussing me out. I removed it again and filled the space with a pan so she couldn't get in. She rebuilt her nest again about ten feet away in a tall hibiscus plant in a container. She now has two blue green speckled eggs in the nest. I surrender, she wins.
I noticed two days ago a female cardinal was building a nest in the middle of one of my tomato plants in the garden. With most birds, I would have left it alone. Cardinals however are the worst to find the newly red ripe tomatoes and peck a single hole in it before moving on to the next red ripe tomato and doing the same thing. I noticed before removing the nest, she had ingeniously shredded a Walmart bag and woven the pieces into the nest. She rebuilt the nest again using the same pieces of bag I had discarded. I removed it again. She rebuilt it again and found another piece of blue plastic some where to line the nest entirely with a single piece of soft plastic similar to how I would carpet my house. I surrendered again and let the bird win. I'm pretty hard headed, but her persistence won out. I guess I can afford to sacrifice a few tomatoes or pick them while they are pink.
The score is birds 2, Ted 0.
Ted
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applestar
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Well, I'm always tiptoeing around the nests for fear that I would scare them away. 
I'm relieved to hear that they can be so persistent!
All in all, I'm amazed by the locations they chose! Granted maybe you haven't been using the grill, but still, I didn't know mockingbirds could be so blazen. In my garden, I don't see them until the mulberries are ripe. Cardinals, too, seem to prefer the more densely wooded area behind my house, although one year (last year?) a cardinal couple tried making a nest in a honeysuckle trellis against the house -- but they aborted and relocated. I would have thought you are working near that tomato plant often enough to make them nervous.
My earliest residents are always the Carolina Wrens. They overwinter in the area, then move into a bluebird house that I'd given up on bluebirds and moved to a spot in a shaded nook right in front of a window. We started seeing the male go in and out carrying food (bugs! pests!
) without hearing any commotion -- I.e. feeding a brooding Mama and now, we hear the cheep, cheep of the babies when he/they go in to the birdhouse.
When the kitties sit on that windowsill, the male will alternately scold and sing in a soothing way (to reassure the family inside?) but will take a long time to get brave enough to go in. I often see him hop on the ground and make his stealthy way through the shrubbery.
Another early nesters are robins. A mama robin has been sitting in a nest she built in my Dropmore Scarlet Honeysuckle arbor by the gate. It's in full bloom right now so I'm expecting the hummingbirds to arrive any time.
House wren males have been busy staking out all the other birdhouses. I don't know if any of them has been officially "approved" by a female yet.
Last year, one of the nest boxes was stuffed full of what I would call "trash" -- pieces of plastic bags, candy wrappers, pieces of haystring, shredded bits of floating covers.... I think that was house SPARROWS and not wrens though.
I'm relieved to hear that they can be so persistent!
All in all, I'm amazed by the locations they chose! Granted maybe you haven't been using the grill, but still, I didn't know mockingbirds could be so blazen. In my garden, I don't see them until the mulberries are ripe. Cardinals, too, seem to prefer the more densely wooded area behind my house, although one year (last year?) a cardinal couple tried making a nest in a honeysuckle trellis against the house -- but they aborted and relocated. I would have thought you are working near that tomato plant often enough to make them nervous.My earliest residents are always the Carolina Wrens. They overwinter in the area, then move into a bluebird house that I'd given up on bluebirds and moved to a spot in a shaded nook right in front of a window. We started seeing the male go in and out carrying food (bugs! pests!
) without hearing any commotion -- I.e. feeding a brooding Mama and now, we hear the cheep, cheep of the babies when he/they go in to the birdhouse.When the kitties sit on that windowsill, the male will alternately scold and sing in a soothing way (to reassure the family inside?) but will take a long time to get brave enough to go in. I often see him hop on the ground and make his stealthy way through the shrubbery.
Another early nesters are robins. A mama robin has been sitting in a nest she built in my Dropmore Scarlet Honeysuckle arbor by the gate. It's in full bloom right now so I'm expecting the hummingbirds to arrive any time.
House wren males have been busy staking out all the other birdhouses. I don't know if any of them has been officially "approved" by a female yet.
Last year, one of the nest boxes was stuffed full of what I would call "trash" -- pieces of plastic bags, candy wrappers, pieces of haystring, shredded bits of floating covers.... I think that was house SPARROWS and not wrens though.
Applestar,
I use the grill two or three times a week. Mrs. Mockingbird wasn't paying attention. We walk within two or three feet of where she finally placed her nest in the Hibiscus. I don't like Mockingbirds that close because they dive bomb your head after they have young ones in the nest and you approach.
Madam Cardinal used to fly away when I approached the tomato plant containing her nest. She always startles me when she does. Lately, she doesn't make as much commotion when she leaves and she sits on the fence within a few feet of me just watching. I was working on one side of the garden this morning and could hear her rearranging furniture. The plastic makes a lot of noise when you want to position it just perfectly.
We also have a Red Cockaded Woodpecker who is a real nuisance. Last year, she bored a hole through the facia board just below our roof. She yanked out and discarded fiberglass wool insulation all over the yard. After she was through nesting, we put a new strip of Hardy Board over the facia board covering the hole. It has wood grain imprinted into it, and when painted looks exactly like wood. Because it is made of fiber filled concrete, I thought she was finished nesting in the ceiling. I was wrong. She pounded on that new facia board for the past month. It sounded like someone with a miniature jack hammer pounding all day, every day. Yesterday, I walked to the garden and my yard was again covered with bits of insulation. I checked the facia board and could see where she made a dent, but no hole. I've looked and looked for the hole into the ceiling and can't find it but at least the hammering is finished.
New score, birds 3, Ted 0
Ted
I use the grill two or three times a week. Mrs. Mockingbird wasn't paying attention. We walk within two or three feet of where she finally placed her nest in the Hibiscus. I don't like Mockingbirds that close because they dive bomb your head after they have young ones in the nest and you approach.
Madam Cardinal used to fly away when I approached the tomato plant containing her nest. She always startles me when she does. Lately, she doesn't make as much commotion when she leaves and she sits on the fence within a few feet of me just watching. I was working on one side of the garden this morning and could hear her rearranging furniture. The plastic makes a lot of noise when you want to position it just perfectly.
We also have a Red Cockaded Woodpecker who is a real nuisance. Last year, she bored a hole through the facia board just below our roof. She yanked out and discarded fiberglass wool insulation all over the yard. After she was through nesting, we put a new strip of Hardy Board over the facia board covering the hole. It has wood grain imprinted into it, and when painted looks exactly like wood. Because it is made of fiber filled concrete, I thought she was finished nesting in the ceiling. I was wrong. She pounded on that new facia board for the past month. It sounded like someone with a miniature jack hammer pounding all day, every day. Yesterday, I walked to the garden and my yard was again covered with bits of insulation. I checked the facia board and could see where she made a dent, but no hole. I've looked and looked for the hole into the ceiling and can't find it but at least the hammering is finished.
New score, birds 3, Ted 0
Ted
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Rogue11
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- Location: Orange County, California
Maybe they are just trying to be helpful and make sure there are no worms inside your ripe tomatoestedln wrote: I noticed two days ago a female cardinal was building a nest in the middle of o
ne of my tomato plants in the garden. With most birds, I would have left it alone. Cardinals however are the worst to find the newly red ripe tomatoes and peck a single hole in it before moving on to the next red ripe tomato and doing the same
Ted
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carol_in_va
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- Location: Virginia
Ted, I can help with this one!tedln wrote:Applestar,
We also have a Red Cockaded Woodpecker who is a real nuisance. Last year, she bored a hole through the facia board just below our roof. She yanked out and discarded fiberglass wool insulation all over the yard. After she was through nesting, we put a new strip of Hardy Board over the facia board covering the hole. It has wood grain imprinted into it, and when painted looks exactly like wood. Because it is made of fiber filled concrete, I thought she was finished nesting in the ceiling. I was wrong. She pounded on that new facia board for the past month. It sounded like someone with a miniature jack hammer pounding all day, every day. Yesterday, I walked to the garden and my yard was again covered with bits of insulation. I checked the facia board and could see where she made a dent, but no hole. I've looked and looked for the hole into the ceiling and can't find it but at least the hammering is finished.
New score, birds 3, Ted 0
Ted
We live in a log home out in the woods. We've been here for 11 years now and haven't had a woodpecker problem until just last week, even though we have an abundance of woodpeckers out in these woods. Our wp was knocking at the eaves just outside my 13 yr old son's bedroom window. He would bang on the wall and the wp would bang right back!
My husband & I went to Lowe's and got one of those plastic owls and hung it from the eaves. The wp hasn't returned since. Now, they say you have to move these owls around once a week or so to keep the birds confused, so we'll take him down and start putting him in more reachable places this weekend. He's also filling in those boring bee holes that the wp was interested in to begin with. If he'd have done that a few weeks ago when I'd suggested.... lol Oh well, at least it got done, right? 
For some reason birds decided to start loving my tomatoes. I never had a problem until about a week ago when I found a few peck marks in an almost-ripe tomato. Now every pink tomato I have is ruined, some of them are almost entirely eaten. What do I do?! My tomatoes are sprawling, no stakes or cages, so I don't want to use netting. I heard plastic snakes can help? Can anyone help me?
Rubber snakes and plastic owls work well or at least they did for me in the past. You just have to remember to move them around occasionally. I had one rubber snake that was about five feet long which I would drape through a couple of cages. It looked so real my family wouldn't go to the garden. I always had to remind myself before I went to the garden or it would even startle me.
Ted
Ted