Perseverance in the Vineyard

We thought we were very clever this year in bagging our grape clusters with organza wedding bags. However, we have been seeing a handful of bags with what we can only surmise are bird peckings. They are such tiny holes, but it must have taken a lot of perseverance for a bird to make these holes. Where do they perch? How long does it take to make the hole? What do they encounter when they reach the grape? Is the sugar content so low that they are repulsed? I wondered.

Since there was no damage to the cluster. I just made a mental note of the pecking until I discovered the following on Friday, September 2, when I was doing a walk though of the vineyard.
Yikes! Where is the bag!!! Since I was one row over, I had to peer through the grape branches and I saw the bag. I made my way to the row and found the bag in the following condition.

There was a large tear in the bag, along with small pecking holes. I showed my husband and he thought that it might be a badger until he realized that it might have been that he mowed over the bag and created the hole. Nonetheless, it was a disturbing site. We will have to be more vigilant and ensure that further midsadventures and perseverance of the bird kind will not happen. No, not in our vineyard!