Bald Eagles Return

Yes! They’re back….the bald eagles have migrated and are back. Not only are the bald eagles the King of the Raptors, and a sign that the Lake and our environment are becoming healthy once again, they also are important to us in the vineyard. They are important as they are territorial. When our vineyard is part of their territory other birds are not allowed in. This is a huge help to us in August and September in protecting the grape crop from the starlings. While eagles normally are fish eaters, the other birds still respect their land territory-even hawks and falcons. Being just 600 meters(yards) from the lake shore, their preferred food is right here. They will go for other birds or small rodents, but only if they are very hungry.

We'll post a photo once we get one. They are very difficult to get a decent photo of as they fly very, very high above the vineyard.

Note: These pictures are just a few of many great ones I received from Len Strahl.

Just to show how difficult to get these photos- the photo below is the one I took of the Bald Eagles. Thank you Len, and thank you John!

The Winter Vineyard

This winter has been one of the few winters where we have maintained snowcover on the ground. This is a good insulator for both the roots and the graft union of the plant.
Winter is an important season for grapevines. During the winter months, the grapevines are in a deep dormancy caused by internal factors and later environmental factors. Dormancy is basically a rest period for the plant following the work it has had to do to produce fruit during the growing season.
When we leave the fruit for icewine, the vine does not go into a true dormancy. It only goes into dormancy after the fruit has been removed.
We show a photo of our horses feeding on hay. We are finding that leftover alfalfa in the hay is consumed by rabbits. We don’t mind this as it keeps the rabbits from feeding on the tender bark of the grapevines.
Also shown is the vineyard in the background. The white covering on part of it is netting on the Cabernet icewine grapes. These were harvested this past December. The netting will be removed once the snow is melted.