Vulture flock messy guests in Florida

[Donna]

BAYTREE, Fla., Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A Florida trapper said a flock of vultures returning to Brevard County for the winter tore up a pool cover, allowing one of the birds to take a dip.

Chris Gangraw of The Critterman trapping service in Rockledge, Fla., said vultures are rapidly appearing in the area in great numbers, and he was called to catch a group of the scavengers holding an unauthorized pool party Monday in Baytree, Florida Today reported Thursday.

He said the birds were captured and set free away from the pool.

Gangraw and other experts said the large birds, which typically return to the area in September and October, are causing messes all over the county by damaging property and covering clay roof tiles with their excrement.
"They're everywhere," Gangraw said. "They're all over Viera, Suntree, Merritt Island."

Article 2: Vultures eye Wis. hospital patients

GLENDALE, Wis., July 23 (UPI) -- Patients at a Milwaukee-area hospital say the last thing they want to see while facing surgery are vultures perched outside their windows.

Yet, that's the view from some patient's rooms at the Orthopedic Hospital of Wisconsin in Glendale, Wis., the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday. It said patients about to go under the knife can watch up to six turkey vultures sitting on ledges of the three-story building.

The birds have long associations with death, but doctors say their patients aren't taking it too seriously because not too many people die at the hospital, which deals with sports injuries more often that life-threatening illnesses.

Still, the striking birds, which boast six-foot wingspans, cause some conversation, hospital officials say.

"I've had patients tell me, 'Doc, it's not very reassuring,'" orthopedic surgeon John Kroner told the newspaper.