Vineyard Wildlife by Steve Cass

We often talk about pests such as gophers and squirrels when we talk about the small animals in the vineyards, however there are a lot of animals we do not consider pests that leave peacefully amoungst our farming operations.
  
Last summer I was frequently seeing several jack rabbits between the rows, they are bigger than a cat, and easily evade dogs and tractors. They don't harm the vines or the drip system so we leave them alone. Because the vineyard is fenced to keep out deer,it also limits the number of coyotes that get in, so  the jack rabbtis were flourishing, until this year.  We discovered a family of red-tail fox in the Cabernet Franc block last month, which may explain why we don't see as many of the jackrabbits this year. Their burrow is under the vine row,  so it does not get run over  by the tractor passes.  They also help keep the squirrel and gopher poulation down.   
Owls are frequently recruited to keep the gophers under control by placing owl boxes around the vineyard. I have 10 of them. 8 were put up when we planted the vineyard in 2001. We have seen most of them populated most of the years,so at 2-3 babies per season, per box,  we have helped to add over 100 new owls to the local population. Last week I counted 28 gopher skulls at the base of one of the boxes, so they work.

The boxes have a hinged front for cleaning periodically.  I took a tall ladder to each of them last week and found them packed to the top of the opening with owl scat, and it was hard packed into a brick that took a shovel to pry out. I also found the corpses of 3 juveniles that looked pretty old, so we can't claim 100% survival. 

We have 2 mountain lion stories  in the vineyard.  One was a sighting by a grower representative who was in the middle of a block checking sugars several years ago when he spooked up a small one resting between rows, it took off towards my house, the grower rep called me at my office, very excited, and told be to bring in the dogs. That same year one of Jesus's largest goats (Jesus works for me and used to live in the vineyard) disappeared from its pen.  It was a 100 lb goat, much too large for a coyote, and there were signs the animal was dragged under its fence and there were lots of mountain lion sized tracks around.

 

The most popular bird of prey is the red tail hawk, they love squirrels and gophers, especialy the ones we have just trapped and tossed onto the ground behind our ATV...they follow that ATV like seagulls follow a fishing  boat. The turkey vulture is really ugly but as large as an eagle and half the time we think we see an eagle, it is a turkey vulture.  We do have 1 or 2 local  golden eagles and are occasionaly graced by them circling the winery in search of a snack.

 

There are lots of deer, and we do our best to keep them out of the vineyard, there is a road runner in the vicinty of my house,  we spot a bobcat about once a year, and there are badgers around, but as soon as their den is spotted they move on.

 

The most populas non-wild life is the cow...think carne asadas taco's !