[redhat]

I am sure I was set for a bumper crop of blackcurrants but when I looked today they strigs seemed stripped of many berries. Is this pigeon or other birds eating them? Is this because of the hot, dry weather? I thought I could hold off netting them for another week or two...

[Trillium]

It's possible that the birds are hungry and trying for anything they can get. Most of my blackcurrants are stripped by some sort of bug, slugs I suspect.

Net now just in case it is birds stealing yours as they don't always care whether or not fruit is ripe.

[Goosegirl]

Could be that they are short of water ?

[shokkyy]

Got any squirrels in your garden? They'll take just about anything, not because they want to eat it but so they can hoard it away and bury it somewhere, just in case.

[8doubles]

I was suprised to see woodpigeon in my plum tree last year eating the acorn sized green plums so yes pigeons could be the problem.
On the positive side the fruit remaining should get bigger .

[Swing Swang]

Redhat - my personal experience shows that pigeon will strip unripe currents very quickly once they get a taste for them - I've seen them sit in the bushes so that their weight breaks down the growing stems as well so they might even reduce the following year's yields. Lost all of last year's crop that way, whereas the previous year I had no losses to birds at all. This year they are all netted.

[redhat]

Another sad note is the discovery after peering at the berries with a magnifying glass that there appear to be microscopic red dots and fine webbing around some strigs - similar to red spider mite? Bad to worse 

[Yorkie]

That does sound rather like red spider mite.  I'm not sure whether there is a chemical control, but regular misting will make them distinctly uncomfortable ...