Blue Birds and Bark

[zuerose]

This morning I looked out at our back yard (I'm still amazed my orchids are alive) and saw a blue jay sitting on the side of my orchid planter, another one on the ground and two sitting on the rain gutter. I'm not kidding - it was like a little gang of birds. I went out and chased them away because I thought they were pecking at my plants but my boss tells me they were stealing the bark pieces for their nest. Really? Should I be worried? When we returned from a week's vacation recently, one of my plants was on the ground, out of the pot. I thought it was the wind, but I guess it could have been the birds? Anybody?

As always, thanks! Sue

[Vivienne]

Sue - highly likely that that is exactly what they were doing... stealing bark bits for their nests. Not sure how you can prevent that unless you create a 'nester' for the birds and leave them lots of other alternatives to collect rather than the bark in your orchid pots.

[zuerose]

What a great idea! I'll set out a kind of decoy - a planter with bark only in it and hope they'll take from that instead of my plants. Thanks, I never would have come up with that.

Since you're good at this, do you have any ideas for keeping iguanas from digging in our mulch and eating any flowers close enough to the ground for them to reach? During the holidays they ate every single one of the poinsettas I put out in our garden. I have funny before/after photos and a couple of them caught in the act, but they're in my external hard-drive, which is - of course - at home. Oh well.

Thanks!

Sue

[Vivienne]

No idea about iguanas - they don't do well in Colorado. But there are a lot of folks from S Fla who may have some thoughts.

Where in SE Florida are you?

[zuerose]

West Fort Lauderdale in a town called Cooper City. We're about 20 miles from the coast but I work about a mile from the beach. Best of both worlds.

[zuerose]

If you like I could send you a collection of iguanas - we certainly have more than we need. We love on a canal so they're in our yard all the time. No alligators, just iguanas.

[Vivienne]

Sounds like you're close to several other OrchidGeeks.

You can keep the iguanas and any other lizards. They're cute but I just like to see them on vacations.

[zuerose]

Really? I'll look around at some of the other member's locations. Right now I have to get back to work. I'll check in later this evening.

Have a great afternoon! Sue