U.S. Border Officials Seek to Evict Defecating Vultures From Texas Radio Tower

[KaySeeks]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/us/vulture-border-protection-tower.html

Load up the tower with 50 kW MW. I wonder if that would heat them up enough to be uncomfortable?

[Matt285]

I know that in most areas Vultures are protected on a state and federal level. I have climbed several large towers and they always had Vultures on them or at least had signs of them being there. I certainly thought about them defecating on me while climbing. You also have to remember not to touch your face.Particularly your mouth and eyes. Not sure why this particular tower has taken on this focus. It's kind of the norm at most all tower sights. in closing I wish them the best of luck. It's going to be an up hill battle for sure.

[Josh]

Some HAMs have resorted to placing lengths of plastic tubing on the rungs of the tower - and horizontal antennae - to thwart avian interests, the bird tries to land and the tubing rolls them off the perch.

[Pigmeat]

Play Boxcar Willy, Buzzards can't stand him.

[Matt285]

Spinning rungs on a tower sounds a bit scary for the climber. Reminds me of a rat trap I once saw involving a spinning piece of PVC and a vat of antifreeze in a 5 gallon bucket. Here in Florida there is a building down in Miami that receives a large number of vultures during a certain time of the year. When I say large I mean hundreds. Not sure of all the things they've tried. Sounds like they need to induce some more RF. There are also some more sinister methods that could be employed. I wont expound at this time.

[Pigmeat]

There's a town about an hour and a half from me that has a big celebration every spring when the buzzards return. I've never got over there to see it.

They roost on phone poles and dead trees in and around fields waiting for the morning thermals to kick up enough for them to lift off and cruise for the carrion left over from the night before. You get a real idea how big they are when they're basking in the sun on the roost with their wings spread fully.

When I was a kid a bunch of ravens took over a neighborhood. There were so many they were breaking tree limbs and having a good old time making deposits at the local Ford dealership. The Mayor called the DNR for tips on getting rid of them. The DNR told him to wait two or three weeks, "They'll go when it gets colder and there's nothing to eat." The Mayor had the cops out firing birdshot at them and suggested homeowners put up fake owls to scare them. 6 cops and a few dozen fake owls against an estimated 100k ravens. The ravens won.

Just as the DNR said, a couple of weeks later, they were gone.

[Matt285]

Yes they are very large. They are built like any large bird of prey. I've always wondered if they were hunters at one time and evolved into being lazy. Maybe the introduction of automobiles on the highway was their big break. In all seriousness though, they do serve an important ecological function, can't imagine i'd celebrate their return to my town though!

[Pigmeat]

Yes they are very large. They are built like any large bird of prey. I've always wondered if they were hunters at one time and evolved into being lazy. Maybe the introduction of automobiles on the highway was their big break. In all seriousness though, they do serve an important ecological function, can't imagine i'd celebrate their return to my town though!

I'm fairly sure they were birds of prey at one time. When I was a boy we shot them on sight due to the fact they killed chickens  and small game like young rabbits. Two, if Grandpa was getting a little senile and wandered off in the woods, buzzards circling inviting every scavenger within 15 miles to a brunch of Grandpa Tartar was a sure sign and fairly gruesome when you found the old coot.

The was a defunct trucking company up the road for three or four years, chicken hawks and red tails got used to diving on cars containing something that looked edible. They could normally pull out of their dive at the last second. Then another trucking company leased the lot. It was a hawk massacre.

[Fansome]

I saw the Defecating Vultures at a punk club in Pasadena, CA, back in the 80s. They sounded like crap.

[Ct Yankee]

Do the same thing that gets Al to move.  Plant a days old dead beached manatee within smelling distance.  Problem solved.

[KaySeeks]

I saw the Defecating Vultures at a punk club in Pasadena, CA, back in the 80s. They sounded like crap.

I'm pinning a lot of hope on the scientifically proven fact that if you made at least one trip into the bathroom of a punk club and lived to talk about it then you have immunity to COVID-19.