GARDEN BANDIT

My son Alex and I were sitting on our back deck having our morning coffee and tea when out of the corner of my eye I saw something moving in our garden.

“Did you see that?” I asked as I set my cup on the table and got up to investigate.

“I think it’s one of our new neighbors.” Alex said as he followed me down the steps.

“What?” I stopped and turned around to look at him. “What new neighbor?”

Alex laughed as he pointed to the bird house across the yard where a new family of house finches had moved in and the babies had just hatched. “Ever since the babies hatched I’ve seen either the Mom or the Dad flying around the snow pea plants.”

“Are you serious?” I walked over to the garden gate and could see the house finch working it’s way around the snow peas vines. “Can you help me get him out?” I asked Alex as I slowly opened the gate.

“Don’t worry. They’ve been getting in and out all by themselves.”

“Really?” I looked at the five foot fence that surrounded the garden with a bird netting that covered the entire sides and top. “Is there a hole somewhere?”

Alex shook his head. “Nope. I checked the other day. I just think they’re small enough to fly through the netting.”

Sure enough as I walked over to the container with the snow peas our little neighbor saw us and quickly flew through the netting and headed back to their house. We could hear the baby’s frantic chirps as they entered the nest.

“Well, that’s just great.” I sighed as I began checking the plant to see if our little neighbor was doing any damage. “They can’t possibly be eating the peas. The plant looks fine.” I looked over at Alex and began to shake my head. “I can’t believe they can fit through the bird netting!”

“It looks like our new neighbors are garden thieves!” Alex laughed.

I looked around the rest of the garden. “Everything else looks fine.” I pulled a few weeds by the tomato plants before opening the gate to let ourselves out. “I guess I could share the snow peas with them.” We could still hear the baby’s chirps but they seemed less frantic. “They do have a growing family to feed.”

Alex and I were headed back to the deck to finish our coffee and tea.

“I just can’t believe they like snow peas.” I sat in my rocking chair and picked up my phone. “I wonder why house finches like snow peas?” I went to Google and began typing. “Oh!” I looked over at Alex. “It’s not the snow peas they’re eating. It’s the aphids that are on the plant!”

“That makes more sense.” Alex said as he looked over at the garden. “So they’re not garden thieves after all.”

“Nope. They’re little flying gardeners!” I looked over at the bird house where one of the parents had its head sticking out of the entrance before quickly flying out and landing on a nearby tree branch. “Eat as many aphids as you want my friends!” I called to them as they began happily trilling their little song. “I could use all the help I can get taking care of the garden!”