War against the birds. Featured

This one is a micro-tree, or whatever they call them. I think if I'd pruned it it would have more lower branches but I'm not sure. It too was growing too tall and i cut off the top.

I have a telescoping pole I used to paint the 2nd floor and I found basket to go on the end which does a good job of hooking and removing the cherries. I couldn't find anything good on Amazon or some other sites and had to go to a shlock Chinese site. Not Temuu but something that sold cheap stuff with little descritpion. But it works really well. Had to come all the way from China a few years ago and arrived just the day I needed it.

I certainly had my doubts about the phony owl. I never thought bird were that stupid, even before the reports I've read that they're smart. I guess if one is 100 feet up a phony owl would keep it moving. but if it's 20 feet away, I doubt it. Iirc the reviews for all of them were good.

I had a vague recollection of this and today I find: The film's title reflects the well-known fact that woodpeckers don't suffer from headaches, although they chisel a tree at a rate of 12,000 hits a day. For the discovery of the reasons why a woodpecker does not have a headache, American scientists Ivan Schwab (ophthamologist) and Philip Mayu from the University of California received the Ig Nobel Prize in 2006 - it turned out that this is due to the special structure of the skull in woodpeckers, in which the bones have a spongy structure...

Much less good article, but the source of the quote above.

I have several tools I use to harvest fruit from trees. The commercial basket on a pole with hook loops works Ok, but frequently the fruit misses the basket and gets bruised. I created my own special tools for Apples, pears, plums, etc.

I found several appropriate types of reasonably stiff thin wall plastic tubing of appropriate sized that the fruit can loosely fit inside the tube. These usually come from the hardware store, like PVC, or ABS plastic pipe or lightweight drain pipe for larger sizes, and can be found with one end that is enlarged to fit over the smaller end of another, to make long lengths.

I cut one or more notches maybe 1/4" at the picking end of one of the tubes. I can reach up in the tree with this tool, with one hand capping the lower end to carry the weight and the other hand higher on the pipe to guide it, slip the end over a fruit, and push it up and to the side a bit while twisting the pipe until the notch finds the stem and breaks it off. I keep my bottom hand covering the bottom of the pipe to not let air escape. The fruit slides slowly down the pipe because the air ahead of it compresses and slows it. The fruit drops softly into my hand, I put it into my bucket, then go for the next fruit.

Never a bruise.

Post a youtube video - I want to patent it. John T.

snipped-for-privacy@ccanoemail.com wrote on 5/27/2024 4:45 PM:

I think the air-cushioning effect works only if the fruit has a diameter almost the same as the pipe. For example, an elevator falling down the elevator shaft can benefit from the air-cushioning effect, but you will be free-falling if you jump into the elevator shaft.

There is a reason I have more than one size. I have never had a problem, other than a fruit too large could not fit and I have to lower the top end to remove it.

Just hire a 'newcomer' down at Home Depot.

Mine works. Birds are indeed, that stupid.