Recently my grandson, 5, was excited to see hundreds of vultures circling above my home and garden. When vultures fly in colonies like this, it is known as a “kettle.” While some turkey vultures remain here throughout the year, most of the thousands of black vultures that roost in Eureka Springs, primarily near Fuller Hollow, are migratory; they are only here during the winter.
While I, too, can appreciate the beauty of hundreds of birds soaring in formation, the next day my car was covered in white vulture poop. I couldn’t even see out the back window. It was not easy to clean off. Just rinsing it with a hose did almost nothing. A scrub brush didn’t work well either. I had to use a scouring pad, which is not the best thing for a car’s paint job, but neither is leaving such a caustic substance on your car.
I was concerned not just about my car but my organic garden. Vulture waste contains many toxic chemicals including e. coli and bacteria. It poses potential harm to water quality, pets, other wildlife and people. The waste also harms roofs, and vultures have also been known to peck at roofs and rubber membranes on vehicles causing annoying destruction.
About a year ago at the urging of vulture colony watcher Scot Halsell, I wrote an article about how the vulture colony centered at Fuller Hollow was larger than ever. At the time, Halsell estimated the vulture population had been growing from a third to a half each of the previous six years. He reports that this year there are more vultures than ever, and they are roosting in broader areas of town, including down Dairy Hollow and Grand Ave. near the train station, and towards downtown to the area where I live near the library.
“The tribe seems much larger than this past year,” Halsell said. “Just like humans, they have overbred, and the environment can’t support them. I can see white excrement from the top to the bottom of Fuller Hollow. That was a great creek through Fuller Hollow, and there is a waterfall down there where kids can’t play anymore. Right now, it looks like Fuller Hollow is going to end up being a Superfund site.”
I have been using a drum to try to discourage the vultures that have been trying to roost in a neighbor’s walnut tree. Another neighbor said the day before my car got slimed, he heard someone on Main Street below us shooting off bottle rocks to scare off the vultures.
Vultures are protected from being killed by the Migratory Bird Species Act. While it is legal to use noise to disrupt them, Halsell thinks there needs to be a major, city-wide effort established to prevent the vultures from roosting in town.
“I don’t think we can rely on any state or federal agency to solve this problem for us,” Halsell said. “I think the answer is a good, solid community effort to drive these birds out with noise or something else. Clapping is the most effective thing I’ve found. They are very flighty. When I clap, they fly off every time, hundreds and hundreds of them.”
Mayor Butch Berry said the city has been discussing various solutions for at least the past 15 years. Previously, city council has invited officials with USDA Wildlife Services to address the council about potential solutions.
“One of the best solutions is the loud explosive noise every morning around 7 a.m. and every evening at 6 or 7 p.m. for a couple of weeks,” Berry said. “A few years back we used a loud cannon and citizens hated the noise. So that effort was abandoned. The government has said that the only solution is to scare them off by loud noise. But really, all that will do is to move them to another location, hopefully out of the city. But there’s no guarantee that they will relocate out of the city.”
Berry said the other solution to help keep the birds off roofs from being destroyed is the use of a dead vulture effigy. The USDA will help with providing the effigies. The city and other private owners use effigies to keep the birds off buildings.
Berry said if enough residents are willing to put up with the explosive noise twice a day for a couple of weeks, the city would be glad to contact the USDA. But hearing a booming cannon each morning at 7 could annoy folks more than vulture leavings on vehicles, porches and houses. Also, there is an argument that these scavengers play a vital role in the ecosystem, and that disturbing them in the winter right before they roost could lead to them not finding another place to roost, and dying.
“If anyone else knows of a different solution, please let me know and we’ll see about implementing it,” Berry said.
Another issue is the impact of the colony on trees. About eight years ago the vultures were primarily confined to a few trees in the hollow, and one large tree died because of the impact of their weight and the toxicity of excrement. Now nearly every tree up and down the quarter mile Fuller Hollow is weighed down with vultures each night. Lower limbs of the trees and the ground are covered with what looks like snow, but is vulture waste.
The vultures today may be higher than the human population of Eureka Springs. The difference is there is a sewage treatment plant for humans, and the vulture waste flows down into one of the city’s most beautiful springs, then downstream eventually ending up in Table Rock Lake where people swim and fish.
A bird’s eye video taken a year ago by Cameron Dunaway, Eureka Drone Solutions, shows the scope of the problem. The video can be viewed youtu.be/nr_9pl4nFek. Dunaway, who donated his time to provide the video, said a zoom camera was used to capture the footage.
Dr. Joe Neal, co-author of Arkansas Birds, said the warming climate may be have a lot to do with why black vultures and some other species further south (black-bellied whistling-ducks, great-tailed grackles, etc.) have expanded to our region in growing numbers.
The Missouri Department of Conservation said one virtue of vultures is that when they eat a dead animal that had rabies, distemper, or other disease, the vultures don’t get sick and they keep mammalian scavengers from eating the animal and getting the disease. “But if an opossum, raccoon, or your dog were to eat that carcass, they could get sick and spread the disease to more animals,” MDOC states on its website.