Blackbirds eat all the cherries at National Trust event in Cornwall
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Grub's up!
A flock of "cheeky blackbirds" have eaten all of the cherries at a pick-your-own fruit event.
The event was set to be held at Cotehele, a medieval house and gardens owned by the National Trust in Cornwall.
Over five days, beginning on 28 June, visitors were invited to pick their own cherries at Cotehele to take home.
However organiser Laura Jarman had to cancel the event after a call from the gardener to say all fruit had been eaten by some hungry blackbirds - that's 80 trees worth of cherries!
The cherry trees at Cotehele have produced a bumper crop this year - sadly no one was able to taste them before the birds flew in!
Ms Jarman said the cherry orchards had been blossoming since 2004, but in the last few years there had been many more cherries on the trees.
"We've been very excitedly planning our pick-your-own cherries at Cotehele" she said.
"On Monday we were getting the planning in place and checking the cherries were ripening and Wednesday morning the gardener came to tell me they'd all gone.
"Eighty trees' worth of cherries have been feasted on by the very cheeky blackbirds."
"They're so cute. we don't mind too much." she added.
Ms Jarman said they were still planning to hold an apple picking event later in the year.
- Published11 January 2017
