Remember last week, when I showed you bird damage on fruit? Well, since then, vineyard workers have put netting completely around the rows of vines. This is costly, but necessary to protect the grapes from those wily starlings!
Vineyard growers have tried many things to keep the birds away, from shiny, mylar-like streamers that move and reflect, to professionally trained falcons. Netting is thought to be the most efficient method to protect the grape clusters from birds.
One year while working at Charles Krug, starlings caused a power transformer to blow up. When the power company worker arrived, the worker told me that this happened sometimes during harvest. There were enough starlings hanging out on a power line above a vineyard that when they took flight, their wings all touched and they made a complete circuit, blowing the transformer and simultaneously frying all 400 or so little birdies. They fell smoking to the ground. What a spectacle! The power company worker said that sometimes after a big "fry", lots of feral cats run out of the vineyards, grabbing cooked birds and running willy nilly. Talk about a barbeque.
To get a closer view, click on each picture.
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