Harvest is just about ready to begin, and that means you begin to see some very strange things in the vineyards. There are ribbons, twisted in and a midst the vines. They are bright and colorful. Maybe it's some kind of a harvest celebration? In some vineyards they have Mylar balloons with strange eye shapes emblazoned on their surfaces.
And why are there propane canisters scattered around the vineyard with strange bazooka-like guns attached by a tube? The answer is birds. It has to be heart breaking as a vineyard owner to watch all of the hard work of managing vines and caring for fruit only to watch it get eaten by birds. Some vineyards go to the work of covering their entire crop with netting to keep the birds out. And none of it works completely. Birds seem to enjoy the ribbons and balloons. They scatter the first time a propane cannon goes off, and stay away for several minutes. The second time it goes off they hit the air and then return to their eating. By about the fifth time they don't even react! I talked to one vineyard owner who had netted his crops only to discover that birds had found a way up into the nets with a few dying as they tried in vain to get out.
In 2011 when I was doing my internship at Coeur de Terre vineyard, the harvest was late in coming and then the birds arrived after their normal food was gone. It was terrible. Some vineyards lost 30% of their crop. Recently I had to search for the empty cluster which is pictured above. That year entire rows of the vineyard were eaten away. Maybe the only answer is that you have to plant enough grapes for you and the birds. I think the cannons and the balloons and the ribbons make the vineyard owners feel as though they are doing something. We humans do not like to admit that we are helpless about anything. Surely there is something we can do! In my line of work as a pastor, I have to deal with many situations where people have no good options left to them, and there is literally nothing they can do.
I met with a family recently who had just dealt with the death of someone they loved. The wife was at first angry, and then depressed. Ultimately she said she thought of her role as that of a mid-wife, helping her husband to make his transition from this life into the next one. I really liked that. I've seen people die well, surrounded by the people they love. It can be beautiful, and hurtful and difficult all at the same time. There are just some things in life that we can't do anything about. Grape eating birds are one of them!
