AusBonsai

so today after having 6 of my plants in colanders ready to go into the ground i decided to put them in about 1:30pm today after setting up the new above ground garden beds to help my little bonsai get bigger i had put some shade cloth up to protect from the melbourne heat wave atm. so anyway took me half the day and got it all in was all proud went inside to grab a drink and relax after doing all this in 36c heat only to come out an hour later to find 2 crows pulling the bonsai plants out of the ground i managed to get the birds out ofthere and get the plants back into the ground what are the odds that all of these plants now are gonna die?

im completely devastated and have since put up a wire fence aswell to seal it in they were all 1 and 2 year old babies 2 japanese maples, a norway spruce, an azalea and a dutch box and a cotoneaster all were ripped out of the ground only for a few mins re potted them straight away

Should not worry them too much. I've had trees knocked out of the ground and pots with roots sitting in the sun for hours sometimes and I don't recall any dying because of it.
Wonder what the crows thought you had planted?

unless the crows physically damaged the trees or the rootball, they should be fine, its not as though they were settled in, since you only just put them into the ground.

yea hopefully not i dunno what they were thinking stupid crows lol they are like a plague in the west of melb hopefully they will be fine couldnt see any damage to the trees i dont think they had enough time before i came out to seriously damage them the only one im worried about is the spruce it wasnt looking the best due to the heat before it went into the ground we shall wait and see i guess thanks for the info guys

You could say it was...

Hi Mogginator,
That's a blow mate. In the morning when it is cool give them a drink of Seasol. Do this two or three times a week. As you found them pretty quickly and replanted they should be okay.

Regards Ray

yea will do lucky just bought some more seasol yesterday lol so will give them a good feed

Andrew F wrote:You could say it was...

Sorry, hope your trees are OK but this is gold...!

... and I don't use this emoticon lightly...

yea i know i had a quiet chuckle when i saw that pic but thought id leave it alone due to what them lil buggers did

We saw lots of dead crows beside the highway while traveling across the nullarbor.
Apparently the SA govt funded a study to find out why so many dead crows......

Toxicology report came back negative for poisons.

Post mortem and ecology studies found that 98% had been hit by heavy vehicles.

Behavioral scientists studied the problem and discovered that crows always post a lookout to watch for approaching danger while their mates feed on roadkill. Turns out that crows can call out 'car, car' but have not yet learned to say 'truck, truck'

omg i was just crying i was laughing so much then all the other guys at work were like what the hell are u laughing at

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a group of crows is called a flock. Just like a group of pigeons, turkeys or any other bird is still called a flock. Only poets call a group of crows a murder. Urban myths, gotta love em.


Still, crows got no right to be abusing bonsai, nuh uh.

yea totally ruined my day stupid crows all i can do now if feed and wait

Crows aren't really stupid. They take golf balls because they think they're eggs. They often have a nest of 'blue' things, because wild animals vaguely ascertain that bright blue colours can be poisonous objects in nature, thus has been thought to ward off predators seeing blue from a distance.

Freshly pulled up or turned ground is a 'flag' to a crow.... because, it usually means.... easily accessed dinner, i.e. worms and other such treats.

shibui wrote:We saw lots of dead crows beside the highway while traveling across the nullarbor.
Apparently the SA govt funded a study to find out why so many dead crows......

Toxicology report came back negative for poisons.

Post mortem and ecology studies found that 98% had been hit by heavy vehicles.

Behavioral scientists studied the problem and discovered that crows always post a lookout to watch for approaching danger while their mates feed on roadkill. Turns out that crows can call out 'car, car' but have not yet learned to say 'truck, truck'

Yes I've heard stories of the 'cleverness' of Crows.
Things like - if you walk out with a real rifle they flee, but a pretend rifle they don't (not including replicas or disabled rifles, wasn't that detailed a study).
They are reported not frightened of recorded gun shots either...

But these could all be 'old wives tails!' Or should that be farmers tails...?

In truth, they are very clever birds.
P.S.- love that joke! Oldy but a goody!


Cheers
Elmar