Calling Rambo

You can use nets. You can use cannons. You can walk around a vineyard randomly firing a shotgun in the air. But a better solution? Rambo—or one of his feathered friends. In some places like Carneros California, small birds that eat grapes (only when they’re perfectly ripe of course) are a curse this time of year. Draping the vineyard with expensive nets is only partially effective. Booming cannons scare the birds, at least until they get acclimated to the sound. But a falcon circling overhead? A falcon could eat you. Which is why grape-loving birds leave your vineyard immediately. Rambo, one such falcon, has been employed by a company called Authentic Abatement to swoop over several Carneros vineyards while looking hungry. (Apparently Rambo doesn’t really eat any little birds, preferring to be fed by his falconer master). One downside of this new “technology” for minimizing bird damage to vineyards: eagles and hawks like to eat falcons.