It's County vs. Vultures at Rhodes Jordan Park

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA -- Rhodes Jordan Park, near Lawrenceville Square, will close for a few hours the next couple of days as county workers try to uproot at least 250 vultures who have made the park their home.

The birds -- mostly American black vultures but also some turkey vultures -- have been settling in over the past year and a half, the Gwinnett Daily Post reports.

They spread trash and tear up buildings, equipment and electrical wiring, as well as frequently entering the flight path of airplanes passing overhead.

The park was closed from 4-7:30 p.m. Tuesday as conservation officials worked to try to scare the scavengers away. It will be similarly closed Wednesday and Thursday.

“The plan is to harass them through various means to get the resident vulture population here to leave,” county conservation coordinator Mark Patterson told the Daily Post.

Those means will include aiming laser pointers at the birds, hanging fake dead vultures from trees and using fireworks like flash-bangs and spinners to scare them.

The county has been cleared to euthanize up to five of the birds if necessary. The black vulture is actually a protected species and the county had to get a permit from the federal government to proceed with its vulture-eviction efforts.

Black vultures are predators as well as carrion eaters. But Patterson said they only go after small prey and pose no threat to humans.

He said officials expect some of the birds they scare off this week to come back, but are hoping the efforts will at least put a significant dent in the population at the park.

To read the original report from the Gwinnett Daily Post, click here.

(Photo by Ivo Antušek, via Wikimedia Commons)