pecked pears

[ilovebritgardens]

Help! I have waited 4 years for a harvest from my young pear trees. I have around 30 pears on my young tree, about 8 or 9 feet tall. I think they are a variety of red Bartlett. I just noticed 3 or 4 of the pears have a spot that looks like it has been pecked. Any ideas for fighting this? It's too big to be netted. I hate to lose my first harvest!!!

[FB.]

Wow - that's early for pears - at least by UK standards!
Bartlett (a.k.a. Williams Bon Chretien) isn't usually ready for another two months here. Even the very early Doyenne d'Ete and Jargonelle are a month from being ready.

Blackbirds are the biggest problem with my early-ripening pears, but that's simply because there's aren't many other fresh fruits ripe at such an early time.

I just tolerate it, although I find that if I pick some of the damaged fruits, chop them up and scatter them on the lawn, the birds spend more time eating the chopped fruits and less time pecking at the fruits on the tree; the birds won't eat the same thing all the time, so once they've had their fill of an easy meal of chopped fruit they may go away to find other foods to vary their diet (if you ate pears for every meal you'd be sat on the toilet all the next day because they're quite potent on the digestive system!).

[boundtothesoil]

I just noticed 3 or 4 of the pears have a spot that looks like it has been pecked. Any ideas for fighting this? It's too big to be netted.

I have a perennial problem with bluetits pecking at the necks of Conference pears plus Discovery apples. I sometimes use the cheap green netting to cover entire trees as tall as the one you have. It works pretty well.

[FB.]

I have a perennial problem with bluetits pecking at the necks of Conference pears plus Discovery apples. I sometimes use the cheap green netting to cover entire trees as tall as the one you have. It works pretty well.

That's interesting because we get plenty of bluetits and other small birds, but they don't attack the fruit; I guess they must be finding something else more interesting to eat (they - along with goldfinches and other small birds - certainly visit most days to eat the aphids off the apple trees).

[boundtothesoil]

[QUOTE=FB.;1144432]we get plenty of bluetits and other small birds, but they don't attack the fruit QUOTE]

I should probably qualify my previous post. The bluetits seem to start the growing season eating caterpillars etc off the trees and don't appear to peck developing fruitlets at all. . This preference, I've read, is to do with their need for a protein-rich diet to feed early stage/developing chicks. However, once the fruit is nearing maturity (Conference pears and Discovery apples only), I've noticed bluetits taking a single 'opportunistic' peck. They don't appear to gorge themselves. Unfortunately, as soon as the tiniest hole is made, along come the wasps and the fruit's a gonna .

My local blackbirds also have a particular liking for Discovery. I'm pretty sure they peck fruit on the tree, although I haven't witnessed this. However, once a damaged apple has dropped, they set about it with relish. Oddly, most of the other varieties I grow, including Beauty of Bath ripening even earlier than Discovery, don't seem to be attacked by the smaller birds. Instead they receive unwanted attention from Squirrels, Crows, Jays and Magpies.