The Culprits!

I sowed a lot of perpetual spinach, leaf beet, this year because it is easy to grow, the hens love it, they need greens all year round and as the name implies it fits the bill perfectly.  

I have been wondering when the new growth would begin, there are a lot of bare stalks but nothing else. I thought I had cropped it rather too thoroughly, but then realised it had been eaten, every leaf of it!  I wondered if Bonny the Bantam was to blame, but she has plenty to choose from and I have never seen her in that bed.  She would rather hang around the back door waiting for bits of cheese and other tasty morsels!

Today as I sat writing thank you letters in my hut, I saw dozens - well, more than one dozen, sparrows feasting on any little bit of new growth they could find on it.  In this shot there are eight.  They meticulously denuded the whole of every plant!  Tomorrow I shall find a net to put over them ( the plants, not the sparrows!) to keep the little blighters off!