Trouble With Bedding Plants

Bird On! Diary
10th May 1996

The summer task for Britain's gardeners of planting out bedding plants can shorten tempers. As soon as the plants - with their nice fibrous roots - have been carefully placed and watered in, they may disappear. The culprit is the local hen blackbird. Her nest is lined with fibrous roots and mud to give it strength.

Happily there will only be one pair of Blackbirds that consider any part of the garden as their territory, and nest building should only get to the lining stage once every five weeks or so!