Beginner Gardening: @#*! Robins, 2 by Ozark

Ozark wrote:
My bird-in-the-corn situation isn't as funny as it used to be. I replanted eight rows of corn day before yesterday. Yesterday it rained all day, and this morning I found that a total of about 15 feet of seed in 5 different rows had already been dug up and eaten. I have no idea how the bird(s) knew where to dig, as the seeds hadn't sprouted yet.

Today I replanted the latest damage and tied strips from plastic grocery bags on the strings above my corn rows, hoping that will work as it did last year.

I THOUGHT is was a robin doing this, since that's what I saw last year. Now I'm not so sure. On top of the soil where the seeds have been dug up, there are shattered pieces of these rock-hard, treated, pink corn seeds. I haven't seen any crows or blue jays around, and I don't think smaller birds could crunch these things. Heck, I couldn't bite one without shattering a tooth.

Our fields are full of short-tailed pasture rats, I've had an Eastern Wood Rat (pack rat) in the barn before, our trees are full of squirrels both red and grey, and we have some chipmunks and voles around. If it's rodents instead of birds getting my corn seeds then I've got a real problem.