Donna
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« on: 24-Feb-10, 07:31:12 AM » |
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Tuesday, February 23, 2010
The party is over for a flock of vultures that spent the past seven months above Nancy Cox’s Ridgeway home.
A troop of local Boy Scouts recently descended on Cox’s yard to battle the brush, trees and bamboo that drew the vultures. Just three days later, her home was vulture free.
“I’m so happy,” Cox said.
Tri-State Roofing and Home Improvement installed a tin roof over the rubber roof on Cox’s house in December. The vultures had pulled apart the rubber so much that the roof began to leak.
With a lack of rubber to chew on, the number of vultures frequenting Cox’s home decreased. However, they still were coming by to spend their days in the dead tree next to her house and munch on the bamboo growing on the edge of her yard.
To get the birds to leave entirely, Cox said, she would have to cut down the dead tree and dig out the bamboo by its roots. But at age 68, she was not able to dig up the bamboo, let alone cut down a tree, and she could not afford to pay someone else to do it, she said.
Lucky for her, James Whitlow, leader of Boy Scout Troop 168, read about Cox’s dilemma in the Martinsville Bulletin and decided that taking down the dead tree and bamboo would be a good community service project.
“Part of what Scouts is about is helping people,” said Whitlow. “Scouts are also required to do community service projects.”
On Jan. 23, eight Boy Scouts, aged 11-18, and 12 adults pulled into Cox’s yard with a trailer and tools.
“The birds were all in the tree and sitting on her house when we got there,” Whitlow said. “It was eerie looking.”
At 8 a.m., the Scouts got to work cutting down the tree while the vultures watched, he said. Some of them flew to another tree to observe, he said, but soon they all apparently decided it was time to pack up and look for a new home.
By noon, the Scouts had finished their work. The tree itself didn’t take long to cut down, but it took a while to load all the pieces onto the trailer, said Whitlow.
They also cut down the large patch of bamboo in Cox’s yard. Whitlow said he and his troop plan to go back in the spring to dig up the roots of the bamboo so it will not grow back.
The day after Whitlow’s troop came, Cox said she saw two vultures, and only one on the following Monday and Tuesday.
“After that I was vulture-free,” she exclaimed. “I am so happy and thankful to the Scouts for coming.”
She said the birds’ absence was a relief after having to holler at the vultures to leave several times a day for seven months.
“I still have dreams about them,” she said. “I wake up at night and automatically check to see if they are hanging around outside before I remember they’re gone.”
Cox’s pets also were relieved to see the last of the vultures, she said.
“Duke the dog and Snuggles the cat are very happy,” she said.
Cox said that Snuggles is venturing outside for the first time in seven months, and Duke no longer has to guard his food bowl from feathered thieves all day.
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