I would start by mounting a
Water Scare Crow and harassing them. I wish I still had the pictures but we mounted the sprinkler on the top of some 12 ft 4 x 4's, used lasers on the large roosts in the nearby trees and a few bottle rockets. They eventually moved on first off the building two days and the nearby roosting in areas within two weeks. Looking back a permit to kill them would of been easier it just took longer and I was already done.
I got hung up on getting a real effigie and wanted the permit to get one taxidermied for me and earliest wait time from a Taxidermist was maybe 6-10 months after approval from USFWS. Taxidermists not the govt was the real problem.
The Water Scare Crows are a good surprise tool but your gonna have to move them and solve why they are there - probably expansion from a larger roost nearby. Lasers and fireworks where legal can be used at day and night.
Both plastic and taxidermied work effigies and according to Eric A. Tillman, Wildlife Biologist, USDA/APHIS/WS who I interviewed in Apr 2009 wrote:
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1451&context=icwdm_usdanwrcFrom the consistent responses that we recorded, it is obvious that the presence of a dead vulture hanging by its feet makes a tower less suitable as a vulture roost site. In every trial, there was immediate reduction in numbers of roosting birds, fol- lowed soon by abandonment of the roost site, re- gardless of the species composition of the roost and regardless of the species of vulture carcass or effig. Even the installation of a Canada Goose de- coy caused substantial reduction, although not abandonment, at one site.
It is not clear what features of the effigies are offensive to the vultures. Taste, tactile, and aural cues can be ruled out because vultures never con- tacted the effigies and the effigies prodt~ccd no sounds. Conceivably, the odor of a decaying vulture carcass could be perceived by other vultures as a signal to stay away froni the area. Howevel-, we observed similar responses with intact carcasses, taxiderrnic effigies, and a plastic decoy. The odors prodl~ced by these stimuli are, n o doubt, sufficient- ly distinct for vultures to discriminate them. Thus, at this time, we think it unlikely that odor cues are important. Rather, we feel that visual rues are predominant. This is slipported by observations of many perched vultures peering at the effigy hanging from the tower and by vultures circling the tower, flying close to the effigy, and then departing. The more challenging task is determining what visual attributes are most salient to the vultures. Possibilities include size, shape, color; orientation, movement, and height on tower.
Particularly noteworthy was the degree to which the repellent effect of the effigy or carcass persisted after the stimulus was removed.I have posted some related discussions & photos of real effigies and the archery equipment involved to deploy them.
http://thewildlifepro.net/forum/topics/removing-buzzardsvultures
