Action Taken Against Vultures And Geese Invasion In Local Neighborhood

One Albany area neighborhood has had an increase of vultures and Canadian geese for quite some time.

It’s not because they found an area that found more desirable than another. It’s because one of the residents on Wiley Street in Guilderland kept feeding them. It started a while ago. Several of the residents complained to authorities about Patricia House, the woman that was feeding the birds.

As the bird ‘sanctuary’ increased in the population of vultures and geese, several of the residents were not happy with their new neighbors. Many of the neighbors found the birds to be a nuisance and in some cases, destructive.

In one article from the Times Union, one of House’s neighbors said that “it’s not the birds fault - it’s her fault”. She apparently did stop, but then after a period of time and as the temperatures dropped, she began to feed the birds again.

The Guilderland Police Department recently took action. Police Chief Carol Lawlor sent some officers to House’s property, armed with a ‘bird screamer’ which has been used on the town’s municipal golf course to help discourage geese from nesting. Police also brought in Canadian geese decoys and put them in House’s yard.

According to another story in The Times Union, there was an inspection of the neighborhood on Tuesday. Compared to the report of more than 30 vultures in the neighborhood last month, there were a lot less, with only three vultures in the area.