Buzzard Problem In Lavonia Neighborhood Draws Response

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

The city of Lavonia is working to chase off turkey buzzards bothering one of its neighborhoods.

Last Monday, residents of Brookwood Drive flocked to the Lavonia City Council meeting to complain about the buzzard invasion.

Recently, hundreds of turkey buzzards took up residence on the street of neatly manicured ranch homes, roosting on cars and roofs and destroying property in general.

Longtime Brookwood Drive resident Helen Morrison said the mess the buzzards are leaving is “disgraceful.”

“Honest to gooodness, we’re infested,” Morrison told the Council and mayor. “When I went to Church yesterday morning there’s a convertible that sits across the street from me and there were at least 25 buzzards sitting on that convertible. They’re all over the children’s swing sets, they were all over the cars on the driveway. We have them morning, noon and night.”

Morrison said Carnesville has a similar problem with the turkey buzzards and is taking steps to get the birds to move on.

“The traffic stops for them many times because there are so many in the road. This is really getting disgusting. I know Carnesville is doing something about it and I don’t see why we can’t do something about it,” Morrison said.

City officials promised to take care of the problem using propane-powered cannons typically used to scare away crows from cropland.

Last Wednesday afternoon, Lavonia City Manager Charles Cawthon said they set the cannons up and they seemed to be working.

“We have located an orchard canon that creates a lot of noise,” Cawthon said Wednesday. “It seems to have an effect. It has dramatically reduced the numbers of birds we’ve seen. We will continue to use it to keep the birds away, but from I’ve been told we have to be persistent.”

Cawthon said he and other city officials went out before starting the bombardment to see just how many vultures were roosting in the neighborhood.

“In two areas we probably saw maybe 80-100 vultures,” he said. “They were concentrated in two specific areas on Brookwood Drive and there were two particular roofs they were sitting on.”

However, Cawthon said one concern he has is where will the buzzards decide to roost next once they have left Brookwood Drive.

He said he is concerned they will take up residence on another street in town and the problem will start all over again.