Dealing with birds... could this work?

[organic]

As I'm just about to leap into my first proper growing season (the strawberries outside my back door were a great start, but hardly an allotment!) I'm starting to think about how to keep my crops for me rather than having them eaten by the birdies before they even get started.

I know the usual method is to use nets, but I wonder if there might be an easier way.

I've usually got seeds and nuts hanging up in the garden and they are busy with birds most of the time...
...could it be that putting some seeds out at the allotment might keep birds off the beds?

My thinking is that they'd sooner go for the easy option of getting seeds from the table/feeder rather than pecking around for the things I want to grow.

Of course, that probably wouldn't keep other birds from pecking at the newly sprouted ones, so maybe I'd be making a rod for my own back and need nets regardless - but I'd like to hear others' thoughts on this.

Any ideas?

[Bigmallly]

Hi Organic. Put some canes in at angles & tie some old CD's to them or if you have any old video cassettes, the tape also tied to canes is supposed to be a good deterent.

[organic]

Down at the allotment today I saw some CDs glinting in the sun about 80m away. Pretty effective, it would seem... well, I didn't see any birds fleeing for their lives, so maybe not, but it caught my eye from that far away.

Now to dig out some non-embarassing yet still unwanted CDs to hand up. Could be a challenge!
Haha.

[Paulottie]

Not convinced that CD's work that well long term. Most of the time birds are your friends eating bugs etc. but pigeons are always a pain and will bounce the nets down. Sparrows peck lettuce and eat runner flowers. blackbirds will have most fruit.(and are jolly good at finding their way in.

The secret to netting is timing, and to make it easy for yourself. I always remove them as soon as possible to save nets and share the scraps/gluts with my feathered friends.

I always plait my nets..series of slip knots through each other. A load of tangled torn nets are not tempting to use or much use if you do. Mostly they are suspended on posts with wires/stout string stapled to the top or canes with old tennis balls on.