Here we are at the beginning of August. The summer seems to be slipping away from us.

Our pinot noir grapes started changing color from green to red 10 days ago, and the first starlings began swooping down into the vines and finding the only red berry on 20 vines full of green grape clusters.

The starlings are one of the best indicators of veraison, or the beginning of fruit ripening.

My friend and former ag instructor at Allan Hancock College, Howard Ramsden, stopped in the other day to say hello and to let me know he would be out taking photographs in the vineyard.

The conversation quickly turned to farming and all the challenges today’s farmers face in California.

Howard told me the starlings were introduced to the United States by a bird lover in New York who thought it would be a good idea to have as many different pairs of nonindigenous birds live in Central Park as possible.

I decided to find out more about this major pest, so I went to my good friend Google and found the following:

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Starlings were, indeed, introduced to North America when 60 to100 starlings were released into Central Park in New York City in 1890 and 1891 by an acclimation society. Their goal was to introduce all birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s works.

The entire North American population, now numbering over 200 million, descended from these birds. They can be seen throughout the United States and Canada, from Alaska to Mexico.

A migrating flock can number 100,000 birds. They roost communally in flocks that contain up to a million birds. Each year, they cause an estimated $800 million in damages to crops.

As you drive up and down the Central Coast, you will begin to see grape growers installing the black-and-green bird netting over our vines to keep this pest from damaging our valuable pinot noir grapes.

They don’t seem to care about syrah, merlot or white varieties. Maybe they have roosted near a drive-in theater showing the movie “Sideways.”

One bird I enjoy watching in our vines and throughout the hills surrounding the vineyard is the valley quail, our state bird.

This time of year, in the early mornings, I like to watch as the leader of the covey comes out of the brush into the vine rows followed by the latest additions to the covey.

Small baby quail just able to walk follow the leader out into the cover crop to look for breakfast. I can hear the hens calling out to their young not to stray to far from the main group. Usually a few mourning doves will fly in to join them.

I was out last week driving through the vineyard on one of our foggy, summertime mornings when I looked up on a ridge and there, looking down at me through a break in the fog, were three deer.

They stood motionless as I drove slowly up the canyon floor between the lush, green grapevines.

My family and I are lucky to be able to live and work where scenes like seeing deer and quail are commonplace. I read somewhere there are lots of ways to make a living but no better way to live.

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I was surprised last week when I picked up the Santa Maria Times at the end of our driveway. I made my way to the opinion page and letters-to-the-editor section.

I read a letter from a local resident concerned that soon all of the hills surrounding Santa Maria would be scarred by vineyards, in their words, owned by “wealthy agricultural prospectors.”

The writer accused large corporations and big business of exploiting “migrant farmworkers” and causing the tragic death of a local farmworker.

I agree that was a tragic death. I do not know the circumstances that led to it, and I’m not sure the letter writer does either.

I see this letter as a wake-up call to agriculture. We have a long way to go in educating the public about the jobs we do.

Several years ago, as president of the Central Coast Wine Growers’ Association, I initiated vineyard tours that included folks from all walks of life.

I wanted to show what really happens on the ground, day to day, as we farmed wine grapes in Santa Barbara County.

We went over safety training, pesticide use, current wage structures, current laws and regulations. We also discussed the challenges facing local growers who are trying to survive in a global marketplace.

Those tours were a huge success, and many people went away with a far different perception of the winegrape industry in the county.

As a board member of the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau, I am going to suggest that the Farm Bureau take the lead and work with other ag organizations to provide tours for the public, so that they can come out to the farms and ranches, ask all the questions they want and really learn what is going on in agriculture today in our county.

I’ll let you know when the first tour will be held.

I would like to welcome the person who wrote the letter, “Big business vs. the people,” in the July 21 edition of the Santa Maria Times to be the first guest on the bus.

Kevin Merrill is a vineyard manager for Mesa Vineyard Management in Santa Maria. He serves as a board member for the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau and is president of the Central Coast Wine Growers’ Association. He can be reached at kmerrill@mesavineyard.com.

August 3, 2008