VIDEO: Geoff the hawk saves family farm shop's strawberry season

With the strawberry-picking season fast approaching and pumpkin seed planting season already underway, Bert’s Barrow Farm Shop near Monk Fryston has been forced to take drastic action to prevent the crops being devoured by the local crows - hiring a bird of prey to make the pesky plunderers think twice.

Step forward the hero of the day, Geoff, a five-year-old Harris Hawk belonging to KL Falconry in Pontefract.

He is being brought to the site daily, and the mere sight of Geoff is doing enough to deter the crows from circling.

Charlotte Wells-Thompson, who runs the business with her husband Jason, explained: “The strawberries were ready to pick last year and the crows just devastated it.

“They took two weeks’ worth of crops, and they just went along pulling everything up. We lost tens of thousands of pounds.

“We are new to this business really and we just didn’t know what to do because they were just devastating the place.

“We tried everything. We had scarecrows that customers had made, a kite that looks like a hawk, we had a gas gun to scare them and I even had my little girl running out there to try and scare them off!

“It was a big problem, so I asked Kira Weston from KL Falconry to come down because me and Jason were about to get a divorce over this!

“The crows caused absolute devastation so fingers crossed Geoff will save the day.”

The family-run business was launched by Jason’s father, Bert, who started with a simple produce-filled barrow at the side of the road with an honesty box.

It was only launched to help pay for a life-saving defibrillator for the village.

Six years ago Charlotte and Jason opened a shop on the farm’s old potato store and have developed the business, picking up several awards on the way.

But they were left scratching their heads after their plans to open pick-your-own strawberries and pumpkins were scuppered by the crows last year.

Charlotte met Kira from KL Falconry at an event that the farm shop held last year and got chatting about the situation.

She now comes to farm shop site at Hillam daily with Geoff.

The times vary because it is thought the crows are so intelligent that they get to know the arrival time if it were fixed each day.

Usually there for an hour, Geoff simply makes short flights between Kira and another worker from the bird sanctuary.

Native to North, Central and South America, the Harris Hawk usually feeds on birds, lizards, mammals and large insects, but there is no attempt by Geoff to hunt the crows.

Although a prolific predator in the wild, after coming to the sanctuary with a broken leg as a youngster, Kira says Geoff has never hunted before and has no experience, thus posing no threats to the other birds. Despite this, they are terrified at the sight of him.

“I was shocked at how intelligent the crows are - I didn’t believe Kira at first,” said Charlotte.

“They get to learn what time of day the hawk will be about, but even the sight of Kira and her van is enough to scare them off, it’s unbelievable.

“You can really tell the difference when Kira and Geoff have been here.

“The crows fly around the farm instead of over, you can see them handbrake turning when they approach!

“This is the most humane way to deal with them.”

Like many businesses, Bert’s Barrow has been forced to adapt to lockdown and have successfully set up a contactless drive-through service for locally-sourced fresh fruit, veg and other groceries.

However, they hope to open the pick-your-own strawberries service at the start of June.