Peter,

As someone whose backyard in Ijamsville was utilized as a vulture roost for
a similar number of birds for a fall and winter, I really can't understand
your friend's reason for complaint. The vultures were as silent as they
usually are when observed in the wild, and, actually, provided a source of
some amusement. My father was fond of telling the neighbors that the
vultures favored out woods because "that's where we buried the bodies."

After about three months, this interesting phenomena inexplicably stopped
when the birds decided to move on. My advice would be to have fun with the
interesting sight of several hundred birds taking off anytime a lawn mower
is fired up or a particularly warm morning arrives and let them naturally
find a new roosting site. I've read in Audubon and other non-birding
magazines about paid companies brought in to "deter" such "vulture problems"
from residences in the past. These efforts unfortunately seemed little more
than costly temporary fixes and the flocks inevitably returned after some
noise and/or fireworks were applied. They do naturally move to new locations
constantly, which seems to be the only permanent (and, blessedly, free) fix.

Alexander Baish
Ocean City, MD (home)
Tempe, AZ (work/school)