Mulberry Marauder

I’ve been very puzzled by the number of unripe mulberries lying on the ground beneath our mulberry tree. I thought maybe the tree was shedding fruit because of the dry weather, but yesterday I was sitting in the garden reading (this is uncharacteristic behaviour, but I was on the last 50 pages of  Stigg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played with Fire) when all was revealed.  A blackbird was picking fruit and any that were not ripe enough were dropped on the ground. I do understand the blackbird’s problem – the fruit is tucked beneath the leaves and it can be hard to tell just how ripe they are, but I suspect that the blackbird is being far less selective than I am and picking any fruit it comes across.  I just wish it would move across the road to the blackberries which are less precious.

You might also like: