July 10 2008

5:00 am

I put up the 2 Helikites. Placed a bit more north and west from yesterday. There is one JacKite still up which I did not get down yesterday. Left squawkers off. I will put up all JacKites tonight and then turn squawkers on set to run tomorrow. Took 15 minutes.

Observed a few robins and 1 Cedar waxwing.

9:00 am

Visited with the grower in the field. He indicated he did not think the Helikites were working, so turned one squawker on. I asked if the Starlings were a problem. He indicated that it was mostly the 15 or so "small birds", I thing finches. I did not see one Starling in or near the field. There were a few robins.

Reflection: There is still some good communicating and learning needed by us all. A question I have is, if the real culprit (large flocks of Starlings) are substantially defeated, but a few small birds inflict some damage, have we won or not? If we react to the small impacts by a this limited number of non-Starling birds, and run the various devices w/o change or alteration, my fear is this sort of "crying wolf" will desensitize the situation and thus create a habituation condition where large impacts result.

6:15 pm

Drove the perimeter of the field, observed only 1 Starling (eastern most row) 10-15 robins and 6-10 finches.

With the help of the grower, we put up all the JacKites around the perimeter of the field. So tomorrow, all the JK will be up, the 2 Helikites and the 2 squawkers running. This took around 3/4 hour for each of us. A bit longer than could have been, but I was training the grower in how I did things.

From 6-7:30 pm I observed 10-15 robins, about the same number of finches, and no Starlings.

Observed a pair of Rough-legged Hawks about 3/4 mile NW of the field...probably the same pair we are seeing regularly.

The grower and I spent a good amount of time talking about the nature of habituation; and whether there is much that can be done to repel robins and finches. My advice from experience and reading, is little can be done to keep those sort of song birds away...they are very persistent and resilient to virtually all that is thrown at them (except perhaps if using Migrate or sugar applications affecting sensory taste). Also talked about putting into perspective a majoring on the majors, not the minors. This meaning if we are successful with warding off Starlings, and a few robins and a few finches prey on the fruit, then it is best not to overreact, by deploying all the devices all the time to try to get a few birds away, this will surely invite the hoards of Starlings via habituation conditions.

CS

REMEMBER: The Starling is the villain. It is not the grower.