Afternoon Brief, April 10th

Scientists Launch Wine Bottle Washing Project in Finger Lakes, New York: Glass scientists in New York State are studying ways to wash and reuse wine bottles in order to mitigate rising costs for Finger Lakes producers...

Repel Pest Birds from Your Vineyards with Amazing Frightkite™ Have you ever watched a peregrine falcon hunt? It flies high over the vineyard watching for its prey — small birds. When it sights a target, it stoops, tucking curved wings under itself to create an airfoil, and dives at over 200 MPH. The power behind the fastest bird in the world is enough to kill or stun the bird it targeted. Now think of seeing the falcon from a bird’s point of view, one happily feeding on your sweet juicy grapes. Flocking birds like starlings and blackbirds are the most aggressive avian species in inflicting damage on vineyards. They don’t just take one grape here and there. Instead, they peck here, there and everywhere and keep right on going until they ruin whole bunches. And once the grape meat is exposed, the bees come in and exacerbate the problem. When a flock of birds see a falcon in the air their first reaction is to evade the threat and create distance between the p