Like Hitchcock's The Birds. Anyone else had weird black vultures take over your neighborhood??
It happened in our area about a month ago. It was actually very strange and quite creepy. It was really bad for a day, and then tapered off a little for 3 or 4 days.
These birds are aggressive. They were on the roofs, in our yards, in the trees, and worse thing....they were diving at cars. They were sitting in our yard, and it was creeping us out. Just hanging around in groups. When we made noises to get them to go away, they calmly turned their heads toward us. They did not move one bit. When a friend pulled into our driveway and started to get out of the car, one of the larger ones got up off the lawn and started toward her.
We are not a rural neighborhood at all, so it was surprising they took us over like that. Aggressive and scary.
At first we thought they were ospreys because of the huge wing span. Then we saw their bald heads. Their heads look a little like a wood stork's, their bodies are totally black .
Hubby told me he saw on TV that South Florida was having a migrating flock of them there. I looked online, and found they are in Virginia, West Virginia, and New Jersey. They are a protected species, and one of the stories tells of the harm they did to a neighborhood in Virginia.
Vultures take over Leesburg neighborhood
These vultures, up to 250 a night, have taken over this southeast portion of Leesburg – stripping bark off trees, eating rubber off roofs, cars, hot tub, pool and boat covers and destroying grills. Lawn furniture tends to be a favorite treat as well. And their excrement is acidic – enough to eat the paint off cars.
Vultures have highly acidic stomach liquids and urine which helps in their role as scavengers but contributes to the damage they can cause, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“At night you can hear them up on the roof. They’ve stripped the bark off the pine trees. The sound is bad … and the drippings, they’re just horrible,” said Sarah Corde, who lives in the home behind the Camps. “We have people that just drive up and down the street each night to look at them.”
The Camps finally got enough of the vultures shenanigans and called in the feds.
This video shows the pyrotechnics, lasers and other devices the USDA shot off into the air to scare them away.
This article has more details about them. Turns out this Black Vulture will attack small live animals, not just dead ones.
[link:http://lincolnjournalinc.com/the-birds-venue-of-vultures-causes-concern-p9340-1.htm|
The Birds: Venue of vultures causes concern]
A Lincoln Journal photographer captured images of the birds at the high school in recent days. The population appears to be a mix of the turkey vultures with their familiar red wrinkled heads, and the slightly heavier black vultures with the dark grey wrinkled necks. According to the Website Wingmasters.net, the turkey vulture appears to have evolved to the point where they exploit a particular niche of food - the carcasses of small animals. The birds locate the carrion with their sense of smell. Mammals eaten include mice, deer, livestock, cows, and even reptiles, amphibians and birds. When the turkey vultures feed on large animal carcasses, they often do so in groups that include black vultures. According to Wingmasters, the turkey plays "second fiddle” in such instances, with the black taking control of the carcass.
The black vulture tends to prefer larger carcasses. More aggressive by nature, the black vulture is more inclined to eat live food. Wingmasters included this particularly colorful description of the black vulture: "They have been seen fishing, and they have also been observed ganging up on live skunks and opossums and tearing the hapless victims apart. They routinely eat nestling birds, from seabirds to herons, and they congregate in large numbers on tropical beaches to harvest hatchling sea turtles,” notes the Website.
...The USDA notes that vultures are federally-protected migratory birds that play an important role in the environment. "Increasing and expanding populations may be associated with problems, including agricultural and property damage, and health and safety concerns. Integrated solutions to address problems may include habitat manipulation, dispersal techniques, and population management,” the USDA notes at an agency Website.
After I read all this I began to wonder who else had seen this in their neighborhood. It left me uneasy for a couple of days. They were definitely birds with an attitude and big enough to make one back off.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Haven't seen any destruction caused by them. I have a hard time believing this: "observed ganging up on live skunks and opossums tearing the hapless victims apart" since possums and skunks are nocturnal.
It's a NIMBY thing. 
where they selected the screen pool enclosure. Their use rendered the pool and pool deck pretty much unusable. 
they are bad luck, and they are disgusting and totally give me the creeps.
There are many turkey buzzards here in N. Central AZ, and Mexico is totally infested with them.
Ravens, however, are awesome.
that I get when I see what the CEOs are doing to education. The frustration, the anger, the helplessness. Add to that they are arrogant.
Your point is valid. 
