By Harriet Taylor
FNC Producer

We rise at dawn with the birds, and drive north. New York City skyscrapers give way to open skies. We are headed for Rose’s Berry Farm near Hartford, Connecticut. This pick your own blueberry farm is pioneering a new environmentally friendly solution to control the migrant starling population: falcons.

Left unchecked, a flock of starlings can decimate a field of blueberries, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage. The small black birds know exactly when these delicate berries are ripe, and can destroy up to twenty percent of a crop.

Falcons are natural avian predators. They ride thermal currents in the air, hawk-eyed, scanning the sky, diving at speeds topping 200 mph to make a kill. Falconer Erik Swanson harnesses the raptors natural instinct to stalk the starlings, but has trained his birds not to kill.

“When we first started out, we were up from dawn ’til dusk, chasing birds,” says Swanson, who works for Falcon Environmental Services.

It’s now late in the blueberry season and the program’s been so successful, I’m warned we may not see any starlings today. We have one day to of shooting, and high hopes.

Swanson weighs each bird before it flies. Ottawa, a male Lanner falcon weighs in at 480 g’s. One of the key falconry skills is keeping the birds light enough to fly and respond to a lure, but not hungry enough to commit to a kill.

We survey the sun-baked Connecticut countryside for signs of starlings. The sky is clear: not one starling in sight. My cameraman’s’ lens artfully follows the falcon, gracefully gliding above us. As the bird lands, he dives towards our camera and looks as if he is about to hit cameraman Marc Simon, but he doesn’t flinch.

“The whole lens filled with feathers!” says Simon.

Our second location, on the outskirts of the farm, provides the shots we’re looking for: a flock of birds swoop in and out of the blueberry bushes, taking cover in the trees surrounding the farm. Our feathered friend is up, circling the fields. Sensing danger, the starlings ball up like a shoal of fish, and climb in altitude. They are less vulnerable up there above the raptor.

Ottawa has some help: a wild Red-tailed Hawk, twice the size of our falcon, is on the hunt. Swanson blows a whistle and swings a rope with a feathered lure on the end, bringing Ottawa to the safely to the ground; he doesn’t want a bird fight.

“If a red tail got ahold of them that would be the end of em,” says Swanson.

Today is his last day on the farm until next year when the cycle starts again. Farmers Henry and Sandi Rose welcome the starlings when the blueberries aren’t in season. The birds eat grubs, acting as a natural pest control. My cameraman and I clamber into our truck, but not before sampling a few choice berries.