Lavonia Begins Blasting Buzzards on Brookwood Dr. With Noise

The buzzard bombardment on Brookwood Drive in Lavonia is underway and is apparently having the desired effect.

Hundreds of Turkey vultures have taken up residence on street of neatly manicured ranch homes, roosting on cars, and roofs and destroying property in general.

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

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

Wednesday afternoon, City Manager Charles Cawthon said they set the canons up on Brookwood Tuesday and they seem 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 Tuesday morning 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.”

On Monday, the owner of one of those homes said the buzzards are tearing shingles off his roof and causing other damage.

Cawthon said the canons go off at intervals in the morning and in the evening and will remain there until the birds have moved one.

“I think we’ll do it for at least a week or so, off and on,” Cawthon said. “But we will continue to monitor the situation to see if we visually see any. We will keep it up as long as necessary to keep them out of the area.”

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

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