With less than an hour before sunset locals in Clarksville near the marina have become used to seeing their new neighbors roost in nearby trees: black vultures.
First there's a couple dozen but many more were soon on the way. Within minutes hundreds of large birds toook over the trees at the corner of Riverside Drive and Highway 48.
"I drive by this every morning and its just fabulous. I love to see the birds, I've never seen that many in one place," said resident, Mickey Steen.
To Steen the vultures are nothing more than an opportunity to watch wildlife, albeit she nor anyone really understands why they've chosen this area to roost. "It has to be something with the air flow or something," she laughed.
However, not everyone seems to be as thrilled with the looming birds.
"I feel like they might come and peck my eyes out but its ok," one woman said.
TWRA officials said black vultures gather and roost in large numbers in the Fall, Winter and Spring, anywhere between 25 and 100 birds or in this case, hundreds.
Vultures are federally protected so you cannot shoot them or kill them. If you want to get rid of the vultures on your property the best advice is to make a lot of loud noise 30 minutes before and after sunset.
Farmers with livestock have had problems with black vultures before. Now a Clarksville restaurant can add their name to that list. Since arriving to the area this year the birds have caused thousands of dollars in damage to the restaurants's roof. However, their not calling "fowl," instead they've put up some owl statues with the hopes of scaring the vultures off. So far, however, that doesn't seem to be working.
"Honestly I'd say just cut down the trees and then you won't have any buzzards," said one resident.
Farmers who want to get rid of the vultures on their property can apply for a federal permit, but that's only if the birds are attacking livestock.
