we’re kind of like security guards we
arrived before the sugar content of the
fruit starts going up as the foods ripen
the birds are more and more attracted to
it so we stand guard ten hours a day in
that field until basically the fruit is
harvested and go Birds damage anywhere
from five to ten percent of our crops
especially blueberries and cherries and
apples so we were looking at ecological
and more sustainable ways to control it
birds that come into our orchard she
likes your job we’re using the natural
predator prey relationship of raptors
and other birds of prey against pest
species like starlings and pigeons and
seagulls we prefer our birds to chase
them but break off on command and come
back and be fed because these birds are
weight managed they’re like Olympic
athletes they have a very set weight for
which they perform their best so when
we’re protecting the cherries and
blueberries we get it first thing in the
morning we want to get out here right
before the you know all the problem
birds come in we really don’t want them
to get it you know their meal achieve
their meal so we try to block that so
that they’ll be forced to go somewhere
else so when we do that we tape
typically we’ll stay here all day long
we use the dogs to flush Birds on the
ground between the canopy of trees very
often we’ll run in with a but the
cowbell and they’re going up and down
the rows scaring off birds while we have
a falcon up above waiting sometimes
they’ve got a mind of their own is able
to get in a thermal they’ll go up and
then they drift off and they cross
mountains and stuff we have radio
transmitters on them we can go retrieve
them
the birds are not pets they’re
companions we work with them seven days
a week long long hours 14 hours a day we
take really good care of them they’re
very dear to us
arrived before the sugar content of the
fruit starts going up as the foods ripen
the birds are more and more attracted to
it so we stand guard ten hours a day in
that field until basically the fruit is
harvested and go Birds damage anywhere
from five to ten percent of our crops
especially blueberries and cherries and
apples so we were looking at ecological
and more sustainable ways to control it
birds that come into our orchard she
likes your job we’re using the natural
predator prey relationship of raptors
and other birds of prey against pest
species like starlings and pigeons and
seagulls we prefer our birds to chase
them but break off on command and come
back and be fed because these birds are
weight managed they’re like Olympic
athletes they have a very set weight for
which they perform their best so when
we’re protecting the cherries and
blueberries we get it first thing in the
morning we want to get out here right
before the you know all the problem
birds come in we really don’t want them
to get it you know their meal achieve
their meal so we try to block that so
that they’ll be forced to go somewhere
else so when we do that we tape
typically we’ll stay here all day long
we use the dogs to flush Birds on the
ground between the canopy of trees very
often we’ll run in with a but the
cowbell and they’re going up and down
the rows scaring off birds while we have
a falcon up above waiting sometimes
they’ve got a mind of their own is able
to get in a thermal they’ll go up and
then they drift off and they cross
mountains and stuff we have radio
transmitters on them we can go retrieve
them
the birds are not pets they’re
companions we work with them seven days
a week long long hours 14 hours a day we
take really good care of them they’re
very dear to us
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