Preliminary plum pickings

I bought a bare-root 5-in-1 plum tree back in Feb. The blossoms were gorgeous, and three varieties fruited. The birds were nice enough to peck holes into the fruit to let me know that they were ripening. I tried fighting them off with gold, shiny ribbon. No luck. Then I hung CD's. Didn't really help. So now I just check them daily and eat the holey ones. So far, the Beauty wins on volume being the heaviest producer. Methley wins on taste, and the fruit are quite a bit smaller. But the Burgundy are not yet ripe so they jury is still out. I thought I'd get another tree next year of my favorite variety, but I found out there's grassroots support for expanding beyond plums into apples or lemons, so we'll see. The peach (mid-pride) had 10-20 blossoms but only one fruit remains. About 6 grew a few cm then shriveled and fell off. Hope it wasn't because of low water or anything else I could have done. (And for all pics on the blog remember you can double click them for a larger view.)