Sulphur Springs officials will begin working with the USDA biologists Monday evening to begin the process of rousting buzzards from their roosts in the area of Main and Connally streets between Fore and Water Oak Streets.
Sulphur Springs resident Gene White asked Sulphur Springs City Council during the elected officials’ January meeting to consider intervening in the area, where what appeared to be buzzards have ensconced themselves atop trees in the area of Fore, Garrison and Connally Streets. He noted that they are especially messy, requiring frequent cleaning up the bird droppings from sidewalks and areas frequented by children and families. The scavengers appear to have taken over several trees in the area and have become vexing nuisances.
The Sulphur Springs City Council had Adam Henry with USDA Texas Wildlife Program-Fort Worth Metro Area join the elected officials’ regular February meeting via Zoom to discuss tactics the agency utilizes to divest vegetation in more populated areas of black vultures or buzzards.
Henry at the Feb. 1 City Council meeting told the council that his department could train city staff in tactics, and where to buy and how to use pyrotechnic hand harassment tools to help move black vultures from trees in city neighborhoods. Ideally, the tools would be used for about 5 days to run the vultures off their roosts and get them moving another direction., Henry explained. USDA would charge no fee to train city staff, but there would be a fee if the agency came in and conducted the work themselves. USDA staff could be available to begin the process in two weeks, during which city personnel could obtain the tools needed.
Sulphur Springs Police Chief Jason Ricketson Friday reported that city staff would begin working with USDA biologists Monday evening in the area of Fore and Garrison Streets using pyrotechnic tools. They will begin around 6 p.m. and continue until sundown setting off the noises to try to drive the bothersome birds out of the trees.
As Henry noted, it typically takes 3-5 days of noise before the carnivorous fowl decide to seek alternate perches to claim as their own. And, it could be a process of driving them from one area to another and another, before the buzzards are driven away from more populous city neighborhoods to a less inhabited space.
While temporarily inconvenient, the noise will allow the birds to move on their own, without having to completely remove the vegetation or injure the bothersome winged creatures.
So those in the area should take note, if they hear what sounds like fireworks or gunshots in the area of Fore and Garrison Streets and surrounding neighborhood starting Monday, there’s no need to become alarmed. The booms will be the pyrotechnical tools used by officials to try to disburse the birds and direct them to a more suited environment, and do not need to be reported to police. Residents are asked to be patient as the city works to remedy this problem as harmlessly as possible.
