[RickM]

This is pretty funny.

This is the first year the birds haven't eaten the Rainier cherries off my tree as well. My daughter and I picked 5 pounds of the stuff on Sunday. They are tart and a yellow/blush red. I could have picked 50lbs more but I didn't want to kill myself trying. Now I know why they call a cherry picker what they do.

If you have Bing cherries then you have to wait till they're almost black in color but as mentioned then the birdies want them. They can also go bad (on the tree) within a day depending on temp and rainfall.

I took a gamble and picked them slightly before peak and store them in the fridge in zip locks. You can also freeze when ripe.