Scaring starlings, sparing blueberries

LYNDEN -- Keeping swarms of starlings away from ripening blueberries is hard work.

That was the common theme Monday as a variety of experts gathered at the Lynden Library to share information on starling control techniques, ranging from live and captive predator birds to balloons, kites, traps, poisons and propane cannons.

The meeting was organized by a new organization of berry growers' neighbors called Creative Scarecrows. Members hope to promote alternatives to the cannons, which can make for a nerve-racking and noisy spring and summer around the berry fields.

"I hate the propane cannons," said group organizer Lisa Neulicht, who has lived in her north county home for 28 years. "They ruin my summer every summer."

Neulicht said the cannon blasts disturb more people each year as more acres are planted in blueberries, a crop that is enjoying a boom locally.

Farmers see profits slipping away when starlings, a nonnative species introduced from Europe at the end of the 19th century, swarm over their fields by the thousands. Henry Bierlink, public policy director for the Farm Friends agriculture group, said local damage from starlings has been estimated at $700,000 a year.

Creative Scarecrows member Jeff Littlejohn told the gathering how he worked with his neighbor, berry grower Orinder Singh, to keep cannon use to a minimum last season.

At Littlejohn's urging, Singh said he used bright helium balloons called helikites, as well as kites shaped like birds of prey. Both devices help scare away birds. "It works," Singh said.

Thanks to the kites, Littlejohn said Singh used his cannon for just three hours a day over a four-day period during the height of the season, a level of noise that he found tolerable.

"There was great rejoicing in my house," Littlejohn said.

Jim Tigan, owner of a California firm called Tactical Avian Predators, warned the group that starlings are too smart to be deterred by any one tactic. Tigan said his company does starling control work in California vineyards using live falcons as well as dogs, traps and balloons.

Propane cannons have been mostly phased out in the vineyards, Tigan said, partly because of noise complaints and partly because birds soon learn they are harmless. In fact, he said, some birds seem to have learned to follow the cannon blasts to the ripe fruit.

He also expressed skepticism about reliance on kites and balloons.