Curse the Birds

Sometime you just have to hate the birds.  We have been visited by many flocks of starlings, cowbirds and blackbirds.  Back in August, we put our bird nets up to keep the birds from eating all of our Chardonnay, Cab Franc and Chambourcin.  We were very fortunate with the Chardonnay and Chambourcin.  It is amazing how hungry and tenacious the little birds can be.  The only way we could keep the birds off of the Cabernet Franc was to place double side nets on the vines.  At first, we thought the 4' side nets would keep the birds away, but they figured out how to get through to the fruit.  Next we put 18 ' nets over the top to double net the Cabernet Franc.  That worked wherever we had both nets.  However, the pictures above show how we overlooked the double netting on 2 of the  rows.  On these grapes we only put only the 18' nets.  This would have been enough in most places but not with our friends the birds.  They have actually learned how to push the nets in and sit on the 18' nets while picking the vines clean.  So, we are left with 2 rows of grapes with nothing but stripped vines.  Next year we will be ready for the birds.