Monday 27 April 2009

Falcons for grapes

Country Calendar has a nice feature on the Falcons for Grapes project in Marlborough, where New Zealand falcons are introduced to vineyards to discourage smaller birds which damage the grapes. They also look at research into the breeding patterns of these magnificent birds, which are rare and threatened, and the challenges of ensuring their long-term survival. You can view that video here.

The terrific NZ Birds site has
background information on the NZ falcon.
And Te Ara has some
particularly fine photographs.

2 comments:

Heath said...

They need to find a way to bring back the Haast eagle.

http://www.teara.govt.nz/TheBush/NativeBirdsAndBats/BirdsOfPrey/1/ENZ-Resources/Standard/1/en

Now that would 'discourage' anything from damaging the grapes. Having said that, it would probably scare off the workers as well.

Grace Dalley said...

Yes, it's an interesting question what a Haast eagle would eat if it was around today. I suspect it would make an easy meal of livestock.

New Zealand is unusual in not having any extant large predators; how different it would be if we faced threats other than the weather and terrain in the back-country.