Vultures invade Brownwood Neighborhood

Monday February 5, 2007

News
USDA hopes to chase vultures away from homes

By Gene Deason — Brownwood Bulletin

These are just a few of the vultures on their roosts in backyards in the Oak Park area of Brownwood. Photo by Gene Deason

Officials with USDA Wildlife Services will attempt this week to convince hundreds of vultures that have moved into south Brownwood neighborhoods they should find other places to roost.

For the past few weeks, the vultures have been seen soaring high above homes in the Oak Trail, Oak Park, Crestview Court and Parkview Terrace vicinity, and then landing in the tops of trees in yards and fields.

“It’s not a good situation,” said Glynn Riley of Brownwood, district supervisor of the USDA Wildlife Services program, formerly known as Animal Damage Control. “We hope to, as quietly as possible, suggest to them that they need to move along. If we can accomplish it, we’ll convince them there’s a better place to roost.”

The procedure will involve noise generated by “bird bombs” in an attempt to scatter the vultures, Riley said, and he hopes the work can be completed with as little disruption to homeowners as possible.

“But there is noise,” Riley said. “We hope it won’t draw a lot of attention.”

Riley believes the vultures are the same birds that have been seen in areas south of Brownwood, near the railroad tracks, for the past several months.

“Something made them decide to move,” Riley said. “We hope they will move again.”

Perhaps the largest roost is within sight of Riley’s office on Indian Creek Road. Trees across Austin Avenue near Oak Trail have become home to hundreds of the birds.

Vultures are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so it is not legal to cause them harm. Prompting the vultures to move to another location — preferably rural — is the only way to address the situation.

Another method that has been used with apparent success in similar situations elsewhere involves placing an imitation vulture in trees where they roost.

“You hang an effigy upside down in the tree like it’s a dead vulture, and the birds don’t like to be around that,” Riley said.

Attempts to remove vultures with such procedures in other residential areas throughout the United States have had varying results. Sometimes, apparently successful efforts have been inconclusive because scientists were unable to determine if their initiatives caused the birds to move, or if something else — like the arrival of spring — prompted the migratory birds to fly away.

Scott Anderson, Brown County agent for agriculture with the Texas A&M Extension Service, said black vultures can present costly problems to farmers and ranchers because they have been known to attack young calves especially, even while they’re alive. They have also caused problems for sheep, goats and some wildlife.

“Oh, that’s a problem,” Anderson said when he was told of the vultures roosting in residential neighborhoods. “If they don’t move out, they could kill those trees.”

Chloe Bennett, whose home on Oak Park is in the area where the vultures are roosting, said their droppings have created a mess.

“They’ve been pecking around the skylight for several weeks,” she said. “I haven’t had any other damage to the house, but some of my neighbors said they have. There are hundreds of them flying in the air. Some of my neighbors think I’m in charge of these vultures, but I’m not.”

Vultures perform a valuable ecological function by cleaning up animal carcasses. But as a result of shrinking habitat and slowly growing numbers, they are increasingly coming into conflict nationally with human populations, according to the USDA National Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center.

Vultures can kill trees and other vegetation by breaking branches and covering the ground with droppings, and the birds can damage property when they roost on roofs, according to a fact sheet posted on the center’s Web site.

Their presence will frighten park users and homeowners, and the stench of accumulated droppings is unpleasant. While their numbers sometimes remind people of the movie “Birds,” attacks on humans are seldom reported.

Two vulture species are found in the United States — turkey vultures, seen almost nationwide except in the Plains, and the smaller but more aggressive black vultures, found primarily in the southeastern U.S. but as far west as Arizona and north as Ohio and Illinois, according to studies on the USDA Web site.

The primary diet of vultures is carrion, preferably two to four days old. They are social birds that roost in flocks of several dozen in one tree. Depending on the type, they can weigh between 4 and 6 pounds and run about 30 inches in length with a wing span of up to 72 inches.

Reports of vultures creating problems in Florida, Ohio and Virginia have been studied in recent years. The birds have also damaged petroleum refining installations along the Gulf Coast.

source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2007/02/05/news/news01.txt