Turkey vulture "victim" tells her side of the story

The neighbor who has led the fight to scare away turkey vultures from a radio tower on Linden Street has come forth to tell her side of the story.
 
Peggy Berg owns the house right below the tower the turkey vultures have roosted on:
 
Dear Mr. Answer Person,

I read Jason's proposed questions asked of "Mr. Answer Person" posted on Jun 25, 2012 at 5:41 PM and would like to address several of the questions. First I am going to make an assumption about you Jason is that you do not have up to 40 turkey vultures roosting above your outdoor living space.  Next I am pretty sure that Bald Eagles and Turkey Vultures have different roosting habits. And now one thing about me, I like the birds and bird cams too!

The next topic I would like to address would be …"native bird species to be driven away by a few people that don't want them in their back yard?" I don't want them driven away; I want them to be encouraged to pick a new roosting spot. This radio tower is located behind my property. Every night, from 4 to 9 PM, this radio tower can have up to 40 birds roosting on it at a time. This type of bird, Turkey Vulture, when roosting, has many bird droppings. This is very unpleasant, but they also "spit-up" whatever they ate for the day that cannot be processed. Now we all know what vultures eat, don't we? In one night I counted up to sixty new spots in an hour. One of them hit me, my guest, and covered my outdoor table and patio. This type of "spray" creates an unhealthy living condition for me and my neighbors. This doesn't happen every night for me; it depends on the wind direction so sometimes it is my neighbors. If you don't believe this to be unhealthy, we can take the "dead" vulture down. Then you come up for dinner on my patio. The main course will be "bird droppings" with dessert being parts of a "spit-up" rodent which is one example of the "spit-up" that was delivered to me last week! So the issue is not about "not wanting them in my back yard". It is about human health. Personally I like to watch them. This radio tower is one roost of many located in Decorah. I am sure the birds will find a new roost without causing humans to live in unhealthy conditions.

Now it leads me into letting the public know that I took all legal steps to obtain a workable solution to our very unpleasant issue. Through my research on the internet along with calling the local DNR, the city administrator's office, the chief of police, and the USDA of Animal and Plant Inspection I found lots of good information. However, I only found a few options. The specialist at USDA told me he has had many requests like this in cities across the state. Through his experience working with these other cities he recommended only one solution that has worked with success. He suggested putting an "effigy" up on the tower. The type of effigy he uses is a dead vulture. He went on to further explain that he occasionally finds dead vultures and freezes them. Then when this type of request comes in, an unhealthy living condition, he has a bird available. He had one left in his freezer. So, yes it was a frozen dead vulture. The bird was retrieved by person from the USDA in Des Moines, IA. The USDA issued the proper paperwork in order for us to have a dead vulture. At my request, the company did hang the vulture on the tower on Friday, June 22nd. So no one is killing our large, native bird species. There was only one frozen vulture. And this vulture was already dead because of other reasons before being made an effigy. This solution came from the USDA specialist who is hired to make this type of decision in the best interests of human health and in the best interest of our protected friends, the turkey vultures.

In closing, right now my feathered friends are roosting somewhere else since placing the effigy on the tower. So I plan on enjoying the relief from the "spraying" and use my outdoor living space by grilling some food without "unwanted toppings".