Monday 16 January 2017

Answers please

Or guesses.   I have had two jugs of holly covered in bright red berries in the house since before Christmas;  they have given me great pleasure but now the leaves have begun to fall.

Although I know that the birds love holly berries but never seem to eat them once they have dropped them on the ground, I scattered the stalks of berried holly around the bird table and waited to see what happened.   Although we had twelve male blackbirds under (and on) the table, none of them seemed to approach the berried stalks.

When we went to bed all the berries were still there.  When I drew the curtains back this morning all the berries had been eaten.   My question is - what had eaten the berries overnight.   A possible guess I suppose is mice.   Any ideas?
 

20 comments:

justjill said...

Mice, hedgehog? If you had had snow you could see the footprints!

Derek Faulkner said...

Mice or voles I imagine, hedgehogs should be hibernating.
In answer to your comment on my blog Pat, it is brighter and dry here today but only 5 degrees. I cancelled my early morning walk this morning because my arthritic feet hurt too much but will be doing a two hour, monthly, bird count on the marsh this afternoon. At your age Pat, I expect to be sitting by the fire permanently in winter, good luck to you.

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

The key point is that some hungry thing found a dinner!

Sue said...

Bears, could be black or grizzly.

jinxxxygirl said...

Well Pat our guess is a raccoon but do you have raccoons over there??? Hugs! deb

Mac n' Janet said...

Perhaps squirrels, they'll pretty much eat anything.

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Could be a bear. Many people don't realise it but bears are very partial to a range of berries.

Sue said...

I'd hazard a guess at squirrels they seem to eat anything and everything they can get their little paws on.

I'm about to put out the nuts in shells that are over from Christmas for the squirrels ..... I can't get into the bl**dy things perhaps they will be able to ;-)

Gwil W said...

Fox?

Tom Stephenson said...

The Farmer.

John Going Gently said...

Birds! In the light of the house, they potter around you know

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks for the answers you give although bears is a bit questionable
Hedgehogs are indeed hibernating - and I am afraid we don't have raccoons.
Anothr lot will go out in the morning.

Rachel Phillips said...

If there are tasty goodies on the bird table the birds will leave the holly berries until there is nothing else. Maybe they got up earlier than you and before you had replenished the table..

angryparsnip said...

I would assume, mice, rats, squirrels or baggers ?
I would say Javelinas but you do not have them.

cheers, parsnip

Now a question for you.
In the church yard in your header and many other older churchyards I see, why are the headstones always falling down.
Why does no one stand them up ?

krishna said...

That's amazing.. I think mice.. I'm also watching something strange with my orange trees. I don't know which animals tare eating those oranges. Whenever I go to pick oranges I always find, someone ate the oranges from inside while the peels are still hanging from the the stem.

Heather said...

I think you may be right in saying mice. I once stored some rather attractive artificial sprays of berried greenery in the loft after Christmas one year. When I went to bring them down again for the next Christmas, mice had eaten all the berries!

The Furry Gnome said...

Well, we can't grow holly here, so ..... No idea.

Granny Sue said...

I don't know, but I certainly envy you the holly. It's hard to find in my area.

Hilary said...

Rabbits?

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