Given A Hoot

My friends are worried about me.

They have been taking note of my antics in the garden when it comes to my fruit harvests. They watched in early spring when I started painting rocks for strawberry decoys. They heard me order Mike to stand guard with the shotgun.  They have seen me hang do-dads, gee-gaws, whirly gigs and tinsel on yards of baling twine strung from tree to tree over the current berry crop.

For the sake of my sanity, two of my dear friends gifted me with a loaner hooter. My friends had Mr. Hoot mounted on a pole overlooking their cherry tree, since the cherry crop is complete for the year, they loaned him to me.

This garden helper is about 24 inches tall, plastic and runs on batteries. It is motion activated. When a bird tries to land within its sensor range, the bug-eyed hoot owl will spin its head from side to side and let out a hoot or two to frighten intruders. He is residing in the blueberry patch as the fruit starts to get a bit past the stage of being little green berries with a pink hue, to starting to ripen.

I can taste the delicious fruit already. I’ll have to invite those dear friends over to celebrate with blueberry pie!