The Willamette Valley is filled with birds and profanity! About 10 days ago the birds arrived in the valley and discovered our ripening grapes. Many vineyards deal with the annual arrival of the birds by placing "Bird Guards" among the vines - these machines play very loud and annoying bird distress calls at intervals all day and are usually effective. Not this year! Our harvest is late and the migrating birds are early, some say this is the worst bird invasion they have ever seen.
Our next attempt to frighten the birds has been with raptor kites that actually work very well and are quiet. The majority of the vineyard is not effected by the birds. The #$%* birds enjoy eating the grapes near the trees and on each end of the vine row, so we concentrate our efforts in these areas.
Thought this was pretty cool - with all the credit going to our vineyard workers!
Last Thursday we purchased the last crop cannon in the Willamette Valley! These are incredibly loud and very effective. We've started moving this cannon every morning just to keep the birds guessing. The only problem with the cannon is that our dogs hate the noise, and Coriander hides in the pickup or the gator.
Harvest is just around the corner and the birds are keeping us busy!
Spring is arriving slowly this year, March and April have been unusually cool and wet. The vines have been pruned and tied to the trellis just waiting for warmth and sunshine.
The blueberry bushes have a head start on the vines with leaves and buds.
Our apple orchard is in full bud break against an ominous sky.
