My Papa's distant cousins

There will be readers of this blog who may remember the efforts my Papa used to make each year to prevent blackbirds and starlings from eating too many of his cherries. There were several weeks in late Spring and early summer when battle was joined by a whole variety of means.

Most conventional perhaps was the shotgun (slug guns for grandsons eager to help). But the more interesting parts of the system were various bird scaring contraptions that worked on a combination of noise and visual disturbance.

It's a bit difficult to know quite how to describe the whole thing, but suffice to say, that the components included electric motors, gear boxes from old farm machinery, long lengths of wire, lengths of second hand galvanised iron downpipe, gravel of just the right type (smooth river gravel didn't work), an old blacksmith's hammer - which struck a disc off an old disc plough.

Why recall all this? Well a few days ago, on an early morning walk, we came across my Papa's distant Javanese cousins - with their own bird problems. These people have padi rice fields that are within a week or two of harvest.

You can see the grains of rice - and so can substantial flocks of small birds - a bit smaller and finer than a sparrow.

With shotguns not an option on a relatively small island with a population of 130 million, a lower tech alternative is one component of the system.

I'm not sure how many he'd get with this. They seemed pretty small and quick.

The more important part of the system was a series of strings - with streamers and noise making contraptions attached.

A well timed tug on the right strings - and the flocks of birds take fright - and fly on to another patch - when it's necessary to pull another string.

Eventually they seem to hope that the birds get tired of constant disturbance - or find the padi of someone who is still in bed at 5 am - when they should be out protecting their crop.

This was the most impressive of the 'control centres'. Most were at ground level and just provided a place to sit and some shelter from the sun. This one involved a bit of height - and padi fields quite a way away.

There was a special relay system to carry the operator's tug at least 100 metres - and then up and over a little roadway. I can see my Papa looking at it and approving - or disapproving if he thought there was a better way to solve the problem.

This guy not only had the only high rise control centre, but he also had a wind energy driven noise generator of some type. I'm pretty sure Len Holdaway would have understood it - even if his grandson couldn't quite work it out.

And finally he is the man himself. Can you see the likeness?