chuckle chuckle... re the Merde...

a few year back my Dad bought me a 6 in high plastic owl with a motion
sensor in it. when anything moves.... "WHO WHOOO" came bird
season the next fall.. I set the owl on top of one of the posts.. and
went off to the gazebo for dinner.. we came back an hour later only to
find the owl on the ground... I set it back on the post.. out of the
trees comes woody woodpecker. the large paliated red headed one we
have... he dive bombed the owl off the post and attacked it on the
ground... whooo whooo whooo whooo.... until I rescued the owl.....
True story... since then we net the vines with black netting. some
here use white and some black... I dont know why the difference.. I
find this works for most preditors ..racoons and most birds..
(although the robins still like to get caught under it) This year we
had loits of wasps.. they got a lot of grapes as they get through the
net..

cheers
Marv .
on sunny Salt Spring Island BC



On Fri, 8 Oct 2004 01:22:43 -0400, "Bob" wrote:


Gary wrote in message
.com...
Because of an extremely small yard, some of my vines are of necessity
under
a very large pine tree (the tree is too large for me to remove). The
trouble is, birds apparently like to nest in the pine tree and their
droppings come down on my vines. As you can imagine, that's not conducive
to a pleasant grape harvest. Any (serious) suggestions on how to keep
them
away?

Ah yes, Chateau le Merde '04!!!
Hanging aluminum pie pans on strings so they blow about is one method;
also, buy a large rubber snake or two, or an inflatable owl. Move the snake
and owl occasionally as the birds get used to them. Good luck!


Thanks!
Gary