High Noon at the YO Ranch

Buzzards gliding in slow circles above arid Texas terrain – for anyone who’s ever seen a Western, it’s hard to imagine a more ominous and clear warning of doom than that spiral of vultures (called a “kettle”). But Bob Owen knows the scene can get worse. The carrion birds, it turns out, have a taste for trash.

This buzzard’s tale begins 20 years ago, when the 100-year-old YO Ranch, one of the largest and best known in Texas, sold 11,000 acres of land too rugged for grazing cattle. The 100-acre parcels host homes near Junction, TX, roughly 130 miles west of San Antonio.

Today, some plots remain undeveloped, but many others are graced by showcase homes. Some are used as weekend retreats, while others are occupied year-round. Because Junction is 22 miles away from the nearest town, the subdivision’s homeowners’ association is responsible for all utilities, except electricity and phone. The association manages trash with a large, open dumpster located in the subdivision’s far corner. Landowners deposit their garbage, and once a week a service hauls the load to the county landfill 45 miles away.

Home on the range

The vultures – both turkey vultures and black vultures — were already in residence at the dumpster when Owen bought the property at YO Ranch 10 years ago. At that time, the few birds that preyed on the garbage didn’t cause that much trouble, Owen recalled. But over the years, he said, “more and more vultures were born in the area thinking our trash trailer was their inheritance.” The problem grew as more homes were built, and the trash flow increased. “Their interest picked up,” he says, and the vultures’ numbers grew alarmingly.

While vultures generally don’t hunt and kill animals and aren’t considered a direct threat to people, pets or livestock, many big birds living in close proximity to human habitation can create a clearly unpleasant situation. Turkey vultures can reach up to 32 in. long, weigh 6 lbs. and sport wingspans of up to 6 ft., according to the Turkey Vulture Society. Black vultures max out at a 28-in. length, and weigh roughly 5 lbs, with wingspans up to 66 in., according to the Carolina Raptor Center’s website. Both species are migratory and usually unaggressive. But like most wild animals, they can be fiercely territorial when they feel their home or food source is threatened.

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During the summer, up to a dozen birds were living near the trailer, with many more visiting for a meal. Not far from the trailer, an old windmill became a favorite roosting spot for vultures waiting their turn at the chow line. The birds left fecal matter all over the trash trailer and surrounding landscape. The trash bags they ripped open attracted other pests, including raccoons and rats. Trash-removal costs climbed as the ranch’s hourly-paid garbage man spent more and more time cleaning up after the birds. And increasingly common were unpleasant confrontations between landowners dropping trash and vultures defending their territory.

This town ain’t big enough

In many areas of the country, vultures are a protected species. In Texas , it’s illegal to shoot or harm the birds. “What’s more, lethal methods don't control a bird problem long-term,” said David Kogan, a technician with Bird-X Inc., a Chicago-based manufacturer and distributor of bird-deterrence products since 1964.

Killing birds leaves a vacuum. Kogan said, “More birds will simply move into an area to fill the void left by the birds you killed. But, if you convince the ones already there that a spot is no longer desirable, not only will they leave, their dislike for the spot will be communicated to their potential replacements.” Being law-abiding – not to mention warm-hearted – citizens, Owen and his colleagues began looking for non-lethal ways to evict the vultures.

“First we thought of covering the trailer, but that would have created an access issue for landowners,” Owen said. “We also considered a trash compactor, but felt that could raise safety issues. Who would operate it?” So, Owen tried a sound deterrent, but the shotgun blasts he aimed at the sky had little effect. The vultures would take wing when they heard the “boom,” but quickly returned.

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Next, he tried installing a motion-activated light, thinking if the birds’ beauty rest was disrupted they may leave in search of a quieter night life, but the birds easily roosted with the lights on. Someone else found a paint that purported to be a vulture repellant, and the association had the entire trailer and its access stairs painted with it. The vultures remained unfazed.

Before becoming a YO Ranch landowner, Owen had lived in the city, where he contended with grackles. Faced with birds about 10 times the size of the largest grackle, Owen thought it was possible to use the same strategy he'd used to get rid of the smaller birds. So, he called Bird-X, because he had dealt with them before and had helped.

Bird-X technicians put him in touch with an Arkansas trailer-park operator who’d had a similar problem. In the end, Owen settled on a CritterBlaster Pro, a sonic device that uses sound to harass undesirable birds and animals away from an area. The CritterBlaster broadcasts eight different sound irritants over a maximum six-acre area. Users can program the device to broadcast just one sound, or all eight on a rotating schedule.

High noon

“We put it up last year at probably the worst possible time, the middle of the season,” Owen said. The vultures that had migrated into the area were well settled. When the CritterBlaster sounded, they would leave in a huff, but many returned despite the deterrent. “Pretty quickly, the vultures showed they were annoyed, but they would get used to the pattern.”

Owen experimented with the sound settings and found that all eight sounds, randomly varied, were most effective. While the vultures didn't disappear completely, the device greatly improved the situation to a manageable state. At the end of the summer, when the vultures migrated to their winter quarters, Owen and his fellow landowners cleaned up the last of the vultures’ mess, knowing they would be better prepared to deal with the birds the next year.

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Into the sunset

“This year we decided to have the CritterBlaster Pro up before the first vulture showed up in the spring,” Owen says. Once again, his team installed the device. And this year they turned it on before any birds migrated into the area. After a few consultations with Bird-X and some experimentation with the device, they’ve set the CritterBlaster Pro to randomly broadcast four of the eight sound irritants on a varying schedule.