City taking aim at pesky turkey vultures|[03/21/07]
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Vicksburg’s Cedar Hill Cemetery has some new sentinels, but not everyone is happy to see them.
Turkey vultures, locally known as buzzards, have taken up residence in the cemetery, depositing waste on tombstones and destroying flowers placed there in memory of the dead.
Cemetery Sexton Venable Moore estimated that in late December and early January as many as 800 turkey and black vultures may have been living in the cemetery. The birds’ macabre reputation is not as worrisome as their high numbers and damage they’re causing. Too, he said, with spring their numbers are declining.
“They had this whole area torn up,” said Moore gesturing to a hill in the cemetery lined with dead trees.
Still, the city will take a couple of steps to deal with the birds – buying noisemakers to scare them off and cutting down dead trees in which they like to roost.
Vultures usually weigh about 3 pounds and can have a wingspan of more than 6 feet. They are not aggressive and their primary defense is to regurgitate undigested food.
During the winter, said Moore, a city water tower on Jackson Street was sometimes so full of the birds that it would appear to be covered in vultures. Tuesday morning however, only a few vultures circled overhead in the bright, clear skies. Others dotted dead trees that surround the 200-acre cemetery near the north end of Mission 66 off Sky Farm Avenue.
Warmer weather and budding foliage prompt the birds to migrate to cooler climates, said Frank Massey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Service in Flowood.
Despite the uneasiness that the presence of vultures in the cemetery might arouse and the damage they’re causing, Vicksburg City Project Manager Anna Booth said there are no plans to kill them as they are a federally protected species.
Their attraction to the vast cemetery is not based on smell or its use as a burial ground, “Anybody that didn’t know better might think that,” said Massey. “But that’s just not the case.”
Massey said it is bright colors of fresh flowers, artificial flowers and shiny decorations that are attracting the birds, which feed on carrion.
Vicksburg Mayor Laurence Leyens said the birds were brought to his attention last week and agrees they pose no serious risk. He said he does not intend to take any action to completely eliminate them.
“They have their role,” said Leyens. “The birds are absolutely no problem whatsoever.”
But in order to limit the damage they cause, the city will remove as many dead trees as possible and plans to invest in two pyrotechnic guns to scare the birds off. Massey said the guns will cost about $150 each.
“Nobody wants to visit a gravesite if a buzzard is sitting there,” Massey said.
According to a 1989 book by Charles Riles of Vicksburg, the public cemetery dates to 1837.