When I worked in the fertilizer business both the partners were berry growers. Literally when they figured out their cost of production they allowed for the 'bird's share' of the crop. They tried sound machines, scare crows and air cannons with nothing working very well. They would have been absolutely delighted to have been able to use lasers to deny the birds their share of the crop.
The irony being, entirely possible the birds are providing valuable services in the form of pest control. In other words, maybe they really do deserve a share, & everyone is the better off for it.
Maybe not for the farmer, but how about the general region? What we don’t know about complex interconnects in ecosystems could fill volumes, but we still are happy to disrupt that system for profit. Sometimes we try to disrupt it for seemingly good reasons, like reducing the impact of a disease by killing vectors, only later to discover said vector was also a pollinator.
We’re just too ignorant to be trusted with levers of questionable power over such a complex system.
@vvanders: I hate to break it to you, but raspberries aren’t native to the Americas either. Calling one species invasive while ignoring the plethora of other species which have no significant history in a place is just a word game. In fact raspberries can be classed as invasive, but so what? Raspberries got about a 100 year head start on the starling, so they’re grandfathered in? Feh.
Maybe, but if we continue to build over what we don’t destroy outright, maybe not. Farmer’s fields used to be wild land, along with highways, cities, suburbs, clear cut forests, mines, office parks, etc. Those same birds also have to cope with dwindling insect populations, toxic runoff, pollution, loss of biodiversity, along with habitat loss. It’s sort of like saying that gulls should be able to thrive without trailing fishing boats or stealing our sandwiches, but of course that ignores how overfishing has crushed their food sources.
I’ve been driving through farmland in central North America recently and have been struck by the lack of insects. 30 years ago, a windshield grew thick with locusts and who knows what... not now. In hundreds of miles of backroads saw couple deer and several mice.
It also shocking how little land was left forested and I utilized for agriculture, in a way wildlife could still use the land, in areas like Nebraska (maybe 2-3% and usually only if it can’t be used for crops or cattle). And where they have left patches of forest, it’s used as a hunting area.
