I wasn’t sure what to expect as I drove to Glen Rock one warm day last week to meet a group of men who’d reportedly been trying to harass a flock of 500 vultures from roosting in the trees near their homes — using everything from trash can lids to pyrotechnics.
Would it be like the “Kill the Beast” mob scene out of Beauty and the Beast? Or would the men have a strategic, thought-out approach to their USDA-approved harassment?
Turns out, a little bit of both.
© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. (Left to right) Dave Swidor, Dane Grove and Roy Cubbler are next-door neighbors in Glen Rock who have formed the "Vulture Harassment Task Force" wherein various neighbors have taken turns every evening for the past two weeks to harass a local flock of about 500 turkey vultures from roosting in nearby trees and roofs. The USDA has recommended that the neighbors harass the vultures to get rid of them, so they have progressed from using trash can lids and cymbals to pyrotechnic guns and airhorns.
As they gathered, the men brandished airhorns, laughed at each other and semi-seriously acknowledged that they were the “village idiots” as they patrolled the skies for any incoming vultures. Naturally, that night — as well as the next night — no vultures appeared, which meant that their methods for the past two weeks had been effective.
“Great,” one of the men joked. “No vultures tonight, the night she has video rolling, so now everyone’s going to think we’re crazy.”
© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Roy Cubbler of Glen Rock displays the pyrotechnic pistol he acquired through the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the purposes of harassing vultures from his neighborhood.
Be sure to check out the not-too-serious, but sadly vulture-less, video I made:
Words and Light 
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