Site Meter

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Sky rat


This guy (and his mate) is decimating my plum crop and seems not to care a jot.

Plump, ain't he!

17 comments:

Pdogge said...

No no no no Robert...awful words

Is a beautiful bird deserving of our love and respect.

Respectfully suggest you net your plums :-)

robertguyton said...

Awful words indeed!
And if you'd watched your crops dissapear down those...cops, you'd be using them too :-)
I'm going to try netting, though it'll be a stretch getting them up there. I'm planting another 20 plums as well, along the edges of my property, for the kereru. They can spend their days stripping those instead of my prize plums.

Armchair Critic said...

If your crop has been decimated then, technically, you have 90% of it left. In which case I reckon you should quit your complaining.
It seems more likely that he has devastated or annihilated your plums, but again I don't have much sympathy for you. I recall that you have had kereru problems before and if you have failed to learn from them...
On a more serious note, some of us (me, for example) live in a barren desert devoid of lovely creatures like kereru and tui. I would be ecstatic if some native birds came and ate from my trees. That won't happen until farming and landuse practices encourage them to come down out of the hills.

robertguyton said...

Yes, AC, I'm down with the literal meaning of decimation and enjoy it when others use it wrongly, usually to mean 'largely obliterating'. In this case, I meant that the decimation is occurring today. Tomorrow, they'll return and decimate the remainder and so on :-)
I do love to have them around, and am planting for their continued presence, but as a fruit grower, I'm honour bound to shake my fist at the sky and rant about the feathered thieves, just as I'll hurl abuse and clods at any young scallywags who raid my orchards, looking to enjoy the same experiences I had as a boy.
Is there a possibility that you could head a 'bird corridor' project in your district? The birds'll come if you make them a covered hop-way from forest to your garden.

Armchair Critic said...

A bird corridor. That's a good idea. Due to the presence of busy highways and the distance, tens of kilometres, I could only hope to attract flying birds.
On the subject of scallywags, once upon a time I was one and was put off growing stuff by the attitude of the irascible old [...] who threw clods and rude words at me. It took me years to decide that irrespective of how nasty they were, I could join their ranks in a way, by growing stuff. Right now I grow food to feed whoever wants or needs it. As they are the best judges of their wants and needs I'm happy to give it away. And use the act of giving as an opportunity to promote gardening as a good thing to do, through words, and to promote the act of giving, through action.

robertguyton said...

Don't bow to the tyranny of distance, AC. Plant your corridor in installments and encourage others to adopt a stretch.
Curmudgeonly gardeners are becoming harder and harder to find these days - we need more of them, bless their stony hearts! They are the protectors of many heritage seeds and it's their surliness that's kept those treasures alive. Plus, they're/we're great fun to inflame and can move surprisingly quickly, albeit gracelessly.
I ought to send you some red broad beans 'seeds'. If you email an address, I will.

fredinthegrass said...

I seem to remember reading a study that found Kereru were flying to Stewart Island from points north of you, Rg.
Perhaps you are part of a refueling way-station.
And I suspect the more plums you plant the more "rats" you will attract. Pigeon pie perhaps?

robertguyton said...

You're right, fred, we are on the pigeon highway to Rakiura. There used to be flocks of hundreds of individuals so I guess I should count myself lucky that there are so few. I don't in fact. Those hordes must have been spectaculary and, as you point out, tasty. Yes, more plum trees will attract more kereru, providing there are any left in the coming years. I had planned to plant plums alongside of the main road into Riverton (in the dead of night :-) until I realised that I'd be responsible for an increase in bird-strikes that would please no one. Kereru are devil-may-care crossing roads low and unexpectedly, as they do.

Suz said...

A coupla weeks ago one night, Terry came in from outside whispering "grab a torch", and lo and behold, there was a gigantic more-pork perched on our weather station atop our roof.

He'd merely seen the shadow, amidst absolute silence flutter above him.

Very exciting for us suburbanites...we hear them, but seldom am lucky enough to view them up close or for very long.

robertguyton said...

Cool! I've 'not heard' ruru before - they fly super-silently, with feathers designed to ...feather. It's uncanny. Great that you saw one. Did he more and or pork?

Suz said...

Neither...S/he and us eye-balled one another for a good 30 seconds in full torch-light (which I thought was a bad idea but didn't seem to bother her/him).

Utter silence on all sides.

When relating this anecdote to my friend, who lives a few minutes away (Mike Joy's sister-in-law!), she said their family were mesmerised by one that regularly flew around the street-light outside their house, grabbing moths with a surgeon-like precision.

robertguyton said...

There's an aviary at Te Anua where you can watch rur at night, under pale lights, fly to and fro, catching moths - you are right, it's a fabulous sight. 1080 kills them of course.
Off topic, sort-of, but I once saw film of a bat catching moths mid-slight, by flicking them with it's wing-tip, into its mouth!
Jesu!

robertguyton said...

Jeepers! "ruru" and "mid-flight"
I'm becoming complacent. My standards* are slipping.

*Such as they were.

Suz said...

Nothing wrong with your standards*, but what's "Jesu"?

robertguyton said...

An exclamation of disbelief, similar to 'Gawd!'

fredinthegrass said...

Back in our previous place of residence we had ruru in a block of bush nearby. I used to "talk" with them before retiring for the night.
Imagine my delight when shortly after arriving at our present place I heard the cry not far from the house.
Returning the call I introduced myself and we 'chatted' for a while.
I have found over the years Ruru to be quite chatty, and often was 'scolded' when I tired of talking before they did!

robertguyton said...

Goodness! That's more than I knew, fred. Do you coo? That's the only sound I've heard from the pair/trio that hang out here (they roost in my native 'stand', seeming to like the beeches best).