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06/29/2008: "The Aliens Have Landed"

This year we've been trying various strategies to enable us to harvest some cherries. All of the prior years that I've owned the farm the birds have gotten them all! Earlier this spring we closed off some of the starling nesting sites, which has seemed to reduce their presence around the farm - that leaves just the robins, and the jays, which are numerous. Last week, just as the cherries started to turn color, my friend Jon and I ran a clothesline from the tall cedar to the far cherry tree, and tried out some bird scare technologies.



I was thinking about the bird problem while in the shower one morning, and had an "Aha" moment. We've previously tried tying the shiny holographic tape onto the tree branches, but that is a slow and frustrating process. It's hard to hold onto the branch and make the knot while balancing on the top of a ladder; the wind loosens the knots; and the tape is a bear to remove after the season because it is hard to hold onto the branch and untie the knot while balancing on the top of a ladder. My idea was to glue the strips of tape onto spring clothespins. I picked up some clothespins at Fred Meyer, and then got out the glue gun:



I had previously purchased a bunch of these bird scare balloons, which appear to have threatening eyes on them no matter which direction a bird approaches them. So we blew those up to full size.



I had a trusty helper to hand me the clothespins/holographic tapes.



With her help, we managed to put up 50 ribbons, which made a fairly impressive sight on the trees.





I even picked up a plastic owl at the local sporting goods store, and threw that onto the clothes line as well. It's a pretty scary corner of the orchard at this point! In the next posting I'll let you know how the cherry harvest turned out.