For several days now, I’ve been noticing high bird activity in the grape vine. Today I looked closer and found a fair smattering of empty stalks and brown, bird beak slashed grapes.
Seems those birds were not eating insects, as I had hoped, but feasting on the grapes, just as I have been doing every time I walk past.
I cut a few bunches and brought them inside, thinking I might fill some dehydrator trays to make raisins. After doing some research I discovered that one needs to prepare grapes for dehydration by piercing or slicing them. That seems to be quite a time consuming task with these tiny fruits, so the cut bunches currently sit in a colander on the kitchen table, making delicious, easy snacking.
Though the grapes themselves are small, there are a lot more heavy bunches on the vine. Today, that is. Those same birds who gobbled up the Santa Rosa plums, (all three which I left on the tree) could decide to have a family reunion and wipe out the grape harvest. Yes, I do have the net I used to protect the apricot tree earlier this year, but I’m inclined to share the abundance of grapes.