Feelin' fruity

Right now I am watching a pigeon pecking at an apple and a blackbird gorging on a slightly unripe peach. It was a spur of the moment decision to throw these out and see if any creature wanted them, but now I'm glad I did it, rather than dropping them into the bin.

A few days ago I found some pears lurking in a bag that were so much past their eat-by date that they were going brown and soggy. They didn't last long on the lawn. Four blackbirds finished them off in no time.

But not all fruit is acceptable. Take strawberries, for instance. I thought the blackbirds would whoop for joy when I chucked out half a punnet of slightly mouldy ones. A week later, they still looked like little rubies on the green lawn and the only things that had nibbled them were slugs. And as for bananas... I made the mistake of throwing one out, thinking that perhaps the fox would enjoy it. Wrong! It walked up, sniffed on it and promptly turned round and weed on it as a way of saying, "Do NOT give me rubbish like this again." A week later, the banana lay there like a brown, slimy turd, until it disintegrated and became one with the mud.

So the answer is to experiment and see what wild creatures will eat, and what they won't. A handful of dried cranberries and raisins went down very well indeed. On another subject, if your dog or cat turns its nose up at the biscuits or tinned food you have given them, throw them on the lawn. The foxes and crows will thank you and so, in summer, will the hedgehogs.