the early bird gets the mulch

Every morning the birds get up early and scratch my mulch off the garden bed and onto the only neat path in the whole backyard.



I could find this aggravating. On the other hand, I could take the advice of Mary Horsfall, in The Mulch Book:

congratulate yourself on encouraging biodiversity, smile and push mulch back around plants. Place net over mulch if birds are a real pest.

No, the birds are not a terrible pest. On the contrary, they are pest-eaters. Thus I get to start every day with a smile. And with dirty hands.

The Online Macquarie Dictionary defines pest as:

noun 1. an organism considered harmful, as in agriculture, horticulture, buildings either domestic or commercial, etc.
2. a troublesome thing or person; nuisance.
3. Obsolete a deadly epidemic disease; a pestilence.
4. Obsolete a disease produced by the plague bacillus. [Latin pestis plague, disease]

How could anyone look at something as lovely as a bird and think of it as a plague on the garden?

Well, I'll admit that sometimes, when I see a hole picked in every piece of fruit on the tree, I do think a few bad thoughts about the birds...