Did you actually saw the sparrows? I lost my peas exactly same way today, but I thought it is groundhog. If you really witnessed them destroying your peas,my protection action will be different - I was going to set up a fence.

Yes - I saw them at work! I suspected birds before because some leaves were totally gone and others looked like they had jagged bites/gashes taken out of them, but today I saw the birds on the vines. Also damage was at the top, not the bottom of plant, this also made me suspect birds.

Nope - I'm in the middle of Brooklyn! Lots of greenery but probably not as delicious as my sugar snaps. Any idea whether I should trim the plants or leave them alone?

Regardless of what may have damaged them, leave them alone. Those that can recover will and then you can remove any dead damage. There is no benefit to stressing them further by trimming right now.

Thanks!

It should probably come as no great surprise that pea greens and shoots (which is what your birds are eating) are a popular new ingredient in American foods and are showing up in farmers markets. They have been a standard in Asian cuisine for a long time and are quite nutritious. They are the top-most growing tips in the vine. I've tried them straight off the vine, and they're kinda tasty.

I think your sparrows are reminding us of that. If you trim them, you might do the same with those trimmings.

Oh the pea shoots are great! I've been resisting though because Im nervous about hot weather coming soon, so I want the vines to start producing peas as soon as possible. You can also eat fava greens and flowers - they are delicious!

You ain't alone. Birds here stripped a fifteen foot row of trellised sugar snap peas down to mostly twigs. In one day. Then, no more food, so they left and haven't come back. The peas recovered (I draped a sheet over them for protection) and returned what I guesstimate to be half a crop. Our pea season ends right now because it will hit (and stay in) the hundreds this week, so I'll take cautions when the weather breaks in September. I'd suggest leaving them be. No trimming. They may need every bit of leaf they still have.

If you know Bible references, look at Matthew 6:26. They're talking about harried gardeners.

Where I live, we have an array of birds, including blue herons, raccoons, groundhogs, deer, foxes, moles, voles, etc...(no elephants as of yet). I had to build boxes for my peas, 8" x 36". At the end of them, I have a 2 x 4 that goes up about 32" with a 2 x 2 connecting them at the top. I centered it in the middle of the box on the ends. I then took chicken wire and created a trellis and a protective cage that went up one side of the box, over the top rail and down the other side. It was the only way to protect them that I could come up with.

There are so many animals here that I laid the turkey wire on the ground and then but a 4" layer of RCA on top of it to prevent the burrowing animals. The sides have 1/2 hexagonal wire the first four feet and turkey wire the remaining 3 feet. That keeps all of the burrowing animals and deer out. Now I am looking into bird netting to run across the top, no small task as the garden is 42' x 36', but it is the only way I have come up with ensuring that my family will be eating the harvest and not the wildlife.

Hey Jim's how about posting a pic of uour wire and caed garden areas.>>>Thanks

So I covered my peas with tulle and did not trim. So far so good, they are starting to flower! Now do I need to remove the tulle for pollination in order to get peas?