For the first time I have had bird problems. As I approached my patch, about 20 or 30 birds took off. When I got there I found that they had punched holes in the black plastic mulch surrounding my gourd plants and had shredded the leaves. The plastic looks like someone hit it with a load of buckshot and my leaves look like they were hit by a heavy hail storm. I covered the plastic with dried grass clippings and did not see any additional damage today. They must have been hunting bugs under the plastic. Has anyone else had similar problems?