Well, i could net them but it's not really worth it, the boids their feet stuck. My solution is to pick the fruits daily and ripen any stragglers inside. And like you, we don't begrudge the boids their pudding, just take exception to them taking the lot.

As for cherries, i know a few wild trees near an ex-workplace. I sometimes picked half a carrier bag of black cherries. Those would have filled a few pies.

Garden fruit = fantastic. Free wild fruit = fantasticer.