If you plant a cherry tree the birds will come. The robins love my cherry tree. One year a group of cedar waxwings came and perched on a branch passing cherries to each other. And little birds that I haven’t identified come.
I don’t mind sharing some of the cherries—but not all. So I have started the practice of placing fake owls in the tree, moving them around every couple days. It helps.
If you place a pretty owl covered in real feathers in the tree, it might be attacked. I was dismayed to see feathers torn off and a big bite taken out of the styrofoam core of the owl. A squirrel?
If you pick the good cherries quickly you may have enough for a pie, and then extra to put in the freezer.
If the springtime is very wet it may affect the cherries. The cherries may develop brown rot and then you must strip all the moldy cherries from the tree.
If the black aphids come and begin to munch on the new leaves of the tree, spray the tree with soapy water.
If the Japanese beetles come you might have to work hard to save the tree. 
In the last couple years they have eaten half the leaves on my tree. I started picking them off and dropping them in soapy water, but it wasn’t enough. I placed a lure with pheromes that bagged 100s of these pests. Finally I resorted to treating the ground to get rid of the grubs that emerge from the soil in July as beetles.
My daughter is amused by the effort I put in to harvesting cherries from the tree that I planted many years ago.
If you like cherries as much as I do the effort may be worth it.
The prompt for the community of writers at Five Minute Friday is: IF I hope you will visit the link-up and see how others were inspired by this little word.
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This made me think of “If you give a mouse a cookie”!
I don’t have a cherry tree, but I have blueberry bushes, that have been ravaged by birds and a few random ailments at times.
Thanks for sharing the bits of advice you’ve picked up over the years!
In life–and gardening–we are always learning.
I love this Carol! I’m battling a chipmunk who somehow can get INSIDE my birdfeeder and escape with bulging cheeks! Nature is so entertaining! It’s amazing how God has created it all for us to enjoy!
It is fascinating to watch and learn. I’m still working on the beetle problem. there are less this year, so I have
gone back to picking them off the cherry tree and raspberry bushes, dropping them in soapy water.
Carol, This is such a fun post. I enjoyed how you shared the information laced with a bit of humor, and the pictures are perfect. It’s a great metaphor of life.
Thanks for visiting. I enjoyed seeing your blog. Have a wonderful weekend!