Baltimore Orioles

We have just one more row of newly planted Chenin blanc to tether to the fruiting wire, so this morning, we went to the land in search of the Baltimore Oriole that we see when we reach the north end of our vineyard and sit on our picnic bench for a short respite. We thought we saw the nest of the oriole, so this morning, we took our camera and put it on a tripod so that we could get some photos. It was a breezy morning, so we tried to get the best shot possible. We waited and in a while, we saw both the female and the male orioles: Seeing such wonderful sites as this mating pair of Baltimore Orioles is the icing on the cake that makes working in the vineyard a continual joy.

Vintage 2021: May Vineyard Tasks

On April 28, I wrote a blogpost called Cuttings Are a Fact of Vineyard Pruning and on May 13, we finally finished picking up all of the cuttings from the vineyard alleys just as the weeds and the grass were beginning to grow into the cuttings serving as an effective camoflage. We took a moment to breathe a sigh of relief and moved on to other tasks.
We were trimming the ends of the canes that we had laid down as well as the kicker canes so the next things to do was mowing and weed wacking. Here is a photo of what my husband has been doing:

I have been disbudding. The goal of disbudding is to attempt to make the shoot growth as synchronous as possible and to give each developing shoot enough space for airflow, part of early canopy management.

Meanwhile, we take time to see all the birds that have made their return to the vineyard. My husband saw an Oriole nest but so far he hasn't been able to take a decent photo. Our hunter on the other hand has visitors parading in front of his camera. His trail camera took this photo of a mother and her newborn fawn on May 15 and on May 17th the same mother and fawn posed for a daytime photo.