[moomoos42]

Last year i lost most of my crops to pests so this year i have covered all my raised beds in netting. Unfortunately i have now had 3 birds caught in the netting. i managed to save one as i saw him in time and releast him.  the other 2 my cats got to before i found them. My netting is low and i have a 10ft high hawthorn hedge (full of sparrows). my garden is only 20ft wide but it's about 120ft long, so i can't see how they have got caught unless thet've walk into them. flying into them doesn't seem possible. how can i stop them getting caught up? i love my birds and it breaks my heart to see them like this. thank you

[JayG]

I regularly had to let out a panicking blackbird from inside my blueberry netting the year before last simply because I hadn't made a good enough job of it.

Make sure there are no gaps (especially at the bottom as they are more likely to walk in than fly in) and you, your crops, and the birds should all be OK. 

[shokkyy]

And make sure the netting is taut so they can't get entangled in loose folds. Their eyesight is not the same as ours and they won't see netting as clearly as we do. I no longer use netting unless I can get it absolutely taut and with no gaps, because I've killed songbirds in the past with netting. Personally, I'd rather lose some of the crop than kill a songbird.

[moomoos42]

thank you. The netting they got caught in it the lose at the bottom so i'll tighten it up. If not is there an alternitive to netting?

[shokkyy]

You could always use a fine mesh wire, that would stop birds getting in. It kind of depends if you've got something to fix it to. For next year I'm planning to make a drop down cage to sit over my strawberry raised bed, with some wooden batons running round the bottom and top edge and fine mesh wire attached. I'm hoping that will also have the benefit of keeping out the mice, which did get into my strawberries this year, and maybe even the squirrels too if I'm really lucky. Normal netting didn't even slow down mice or squirrels. And if you've got something with an edge, whether a cage or one of those long cloches, that would tend to make it easier to keep normal netting taut as well.

Now I just have to work out how to do something similar to protect my raspberries, loganberries and cherries, which are all growing up the wall of my garage. There has to be a way of making some kind of vertical cage to sit against the wall, but I haven't figured it out yet

[sunshineband]

Also, birds cannot see black netting as well as green and so are more likely to crash into it, once it is taught etc as others have said it must be.

They are crafty little devils and creep in under the edge wherever they can 

[daisy1990]

try hanging something shiny around the beds (old CD's, milk bottle tops etc) this will keep the birds away

[lazza]

try hanging something shiny around the beds (old CD's, milk bottle tops etc) this will keep the birds away

except magpies and blue tits, maybe...   

[Ice]

try hanging something shiny around the beds (old CD's, milk bottle tops etc) this will keep the birds away

except magpies and blue tits, maybe...   

I see what you did there.

Cd's and shiny tape were no obstacle to birds on my plot. 

[DD.]

Nor mine - waste of effort.

[madcat]

But they do bother the rabbits!  Netting for the birds, shiny things for the rabbits, traps for the slugs ......

Is it any wonder that gardeners are paranoid?    Nature is out to get us    ...  when we just want to live in peace with our lettuces!   :happy:

[moomoos42]

Thanks everyone! i've removed the netting for this year and so far nothing has touched my crops I'll try a mixture of your ideas but i forgot to mention i've got 4 chickens, who are good weeders but don't care what they weed! 
and we're not paronoid, nature is out to get us but part of the fun is trying to out whit her!!
I haven't had a slug since i got my Gal's (lost loads to them last year) but the i've lost the odd thing to my gal's. goes around, comes around!!

[Vit]

Sparrow? They are very tasty, when grilled