Help!Why are blackbirds stealing from my growbags?

[skell43]

Can anyone tell me why the pair of blackbirds nesting in my garden are stealing the earth from my growbag and also going into my new seedlings on my windowsill? Have totally destroyed all my new lettuce seedlings and pulled out several pea plants from my grow bag.Love the birds as they are very tame but getting really cross every morning when there's sad limp lettuce seedlings everywhere! Any tips , would be really grateful.
Skell43

[Rocketron]

Nesting material, or food would be my guess.

[Nicos]

It's called 'Environmental enrichment for wildlife' !!!!'

It's what they do I'm afraid..stick some netting over them- they'll be fine!

[smallblueplanet]

Wait 'til they try and pull out your onion sets too! I imagine they're poking about in the compost looking for worms and bugs - try some chicken wire over the top if they really are a problem.

[Alice]

Blackbirds will howk about in any soft earth they can find Shell - lookinf for worms and any other juicy edibles. The answer is to put some chicken wire or something over your plants until they get bigger.

Many years ago I had a tray of young Azalea seedlings sitting outside and a blackbird howked the lot out onto the path. I managed to rescue 1

[Two_Sheds]

I love my blackbirds (2 females and 2 males, who all fight each other).

They are eating me out of house and home in raisins at the moment. One female has also stripped a hanging basket of all it's liner, for her nest.

I'm not cross ... I feel privileged that they visit me.

[Mustard]

Blackbirds will howk about in any soft earth they can find Shell - lookinf for worms and any other juicy edibles. The answer is to put some chicken wire or something over your plants until they get bigger.

Many years ago I had a tray of young Azalea seedlings sitting outside and a blackbird howked the lot out onto the path. I managed to rescue 1

Never heard this word before, take it it means "tug" or similar. Maybe a regional word I've never heard (I'm from Greater Manchester). Love learning new words

[Madasafish]

Our blackbirds take mud from our pond edge for nesting material..Done it for 20 odd years...

[skell43]

Thanks for everyones posts and the suggestions of chicken wire etc,knew that there would be some seasoned veg experts out there who have had this problem before. X

[Alice]

Hello Mustard, sorry when I used the word howk, didn't realize it wasn't a standard English word.
No it doesn't mean tug - the meanings are various and hard to explain, maybe some sentences will enlighten.
Howk is to dig in a superficial kind of way
or pull out
or dig in order to pull out. As in
I'll howk this ground up a bit and plant this in here.
Just howk that out of there (pull it out of there)
The tattie howking - traditional term for digging and lifting potatoes.

If you watch blackies they just howk about - digging superficially to see what they can pull out- worms hopefully.

Think the word might be peculiarly Scottish. Googled for it but couldn't find anything.

Sorry, just thought of another meaning of the word
= drag or pull out
She howked him out of his chair
Howk that out of your pocket

Oh Rat, where are you ?

Sorry for posting this here if you're not interested, but I've had to learn a million words in English .

[Two_Sheds]

I'd never heard HOWK before, but I got the gist of it from the context

I like it

[markwcel]

i know the word...we use it in cumbria a lot....