A problem with an early bird...

[frostychic]

Instead of getting the worm, she's getting my moss!



Right outta my Phal mounts!!!

Sometime between 7am-9am she is pecking away at the moss on two of my Phals... one of the phals has taken quite a bit of damage to the roots & this is making me pretty irritable...

What should I do? Well... other than the obvious which is to move the phal back inside... currently, it is hanging right outside our front door from the porch with 7 barn cats looking out for our best interest... yeah right

So this morning I noticed that this little early bird has stolen moss from my other Phal too but not down to the roots yet.

Pooooooooooooooooooo!

The phal that took the damage to the roots is growning on a mount... it is an elbow of a tree limb so it has something like a "crotch" in it that the phal is sitting in. It's been in this mount for over a year & is fairly well established... doing what all my phals are doing right now too... putting out new leaves & pushing out more roots...

Advice wanted please...

[mehitabel]

Put some moss out for her where it's equally easy to get and just as safe. ie, make her her very own mount with no phal on it and hang it up out there. Make sure that, like on your v-shaped mount, there's somewhere for her to perch while she fills up.

[frostychic]

Excellent suggestion mehitabel!

[jay]

To scare the birds away from an area, take a blank CD and hang it from a piece of string. The bright reflections should help keep it way from the phals. I have seen others do this with other plants with good success.

[trinigirl]

The bird might be gathering stuff for her nest. She has good taste.

I think Mehitabel has good suggestion above that should work.

It's nice to see you back.

[mehitabel]

If you bring your phals in for a couple of days after you have her mount up, you will help train her toward the new source.

[lmartiny]

Maybe she is almost done with her nest and won't need much more.

[frostychic]

Originally Posted by lmartiny

Maybe she is almost done with her nest and won't need much more.

Well, one would have thought by now she'd have been done... I think theres more than one thief out there!

I did solve the problem though (then I'll tell you how I know there are still thieves amongst my mounts) by hanging a very pleasant wind chime amidst the mounts.

This particular wind chime is made of paper thin flat shells that hang in a row... pleasing to view & easy on the ear I'm getting that twirling movement along with sound & NO MORE ROBBERIES!

However, we had a storm the other night & the wind got to whippin those chimes pretty good so I removed them overnight... the next morning half my moss plucked out from under my mounted dend. nobile.

That little such-n-such

[kmarch]

She's probably making her nest. Hmmm...do you have a hardware store around that sells that fine flexible screen-like mesh? Maybe a "cover" of that of some kind either for the moss or to encase the entire mount, plant and all. Air and water could get through it for watering and air circulation.

[PhalNewbie89]

Most birds would just pick it up and go though which shouldn't cause much damage to your roots. Maybe she also thought she was finding a worm under the moss. With such thick roots it could be mistaken for the worm most early birds find :P

[patticake]

I think I'm glad that I grow inside! She must be almost done, though Unless she's going for the large economy sized nest!

[PhalNewbie89]

Maybe she was a bird thagt always dreamed of a large family lol

[frostychic]

Heheheheee... you's guys are funny

Not much damage occurred but one leaf off my Phal white moon did take a bit of a beating as the leaf got in the way of the bird getting her goods

One large root also sustained damage but again I think it was just in her way.

As long as I have my wind chimes hanging there she hasn't bothered anything again.

You can see the leaf damage on the third leaf from the right side of the photo... on the left side of the leaf up by the base of the plant.

Oh, I also covered the moss with some large (and attractive looking) pieces of tree bark so the yummy moss isn't so easy to see from a-far.