Opolo Vineyards
Assessing Bird Damage with Vineyard Manager Scott Welcher
We met with Scott J. Welcher who is the General Manager, Winery Operations and Viticulture to review the problems they have had in the past with birds. Scott took us on a tour of the Pinot Vineyard at a time when the grapes were maturing and indeed there was bird damage.
Pest Birds Turn Ripe Grapes into Lost Profit
Finches had pecked at many grapes and then wasps had sucked out the remaining liquid leaving the bunches with dried and non usable grapes. There were also many bunches at that time with no bird damage at all as the following photo shows. These exposed grapes are the prime target of hungry pest birds and their losses over time adds up to a significant loss of profit to the winery.
Successful Trial Leads to Full Vineyard Deployment
As an initial test of the Falcon Scott agree to place one unit on the top of the hill at the start of the vineyard and to monitor results. We used a small 22ft unit in a portable base and this can be seen in the following photo at the top left.
After a period of about 3 weeks we had a review with Scott and he felt that the Falcon was working well and that it would be beneficial to extend the trial by adding more Falcons. Two more were added and one of these can be seen in the middle right of the upper photo. These units were installed on the hillside area where the perimeter trees were located and this was an area where birds were known to approach when intending to feed. Larger 40ft poles were selected for this area as the hillside required a higher pole to get the Falcon up into visible air space over the trees and vineyard.
After approximately one more month had passed we made an inspection of the vineyard and no additional bird damage could be seen apart from what was observed prior to the trial being commenced. This was very good news. An additional two Falcons were then installed in the lower left part of the vineyard and left for the remainder of the season.
When the Pinot grapes were harvested Scott decided to take all the Falcons and move them to the Cabernet fields to see how they performed.
