Mary Sue wrote: > I eagerly awaited the opening [of an unidentified Fritillaria], but > alas, on the day I was sure to see something, the flower was gone and > some of the leaves chomped as well. Which birds like Fritillaria do you > suppose? Could it be the crested blue vultures (also known as scrub Jays) > that are so in love with pulling out my plant tags and planting acorns in > my bulb pots? I haven't noticed jays (I thought the ones with the crests were Steller's jay, and the scrub jay had no crest?) bothering the bulbs, though they devastate the hazelnut crop every year. I think what eats my frits is rabbits, mostly, and slugs (and in California snails) are very fond of them too. Deer are a main predator of wild American frits and their overpopulation is probably responsible for declining populations of fritillaria and erythronium, not to mention wild lilies. I think field mice and perhaps chipmunks may also nibble the foliage. Chipmunks certainly dig crocuses, but so far they haven't figured out cyclamen, thank goodness. The rabbits are also bad on the crocuses -- they love the foliage. Then there are the voles under the earth, and the towhees (a thrush-sized bird) pulling up the crocuses to eat the corms. The towhees get caught in the mousetraps in the bulb frames, even with the lights lowered almost shut! I also noticed that voles were cutting Anemone foliage and pulling it into their tunnels, perhaps for lining their dens, since there was no grass handy in that part of the garden. (They have just had a nice meal of gopher bait, and I hope they are comfortably dead in their anemone-lined dens. I closed up their holes the next day so I can see if they reemerge.) Such are the joys of Country Life. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon. USA