Falcons take care of grackles at LMC

For the past few weeks, the trees at the parking lot of Lavaca Medical Center have had an influx Grackle birds roosting in them

The large blackbird’s habit of roosting in the trees or on power lines in large numbers have created quite a nuisance in the LMC area.

As a result, the administration looked into ways to shoo the birds away and hopefully rid the area of them.

At Monday’s Lavaca Hospital District Board of Directors meeting, LMC administrator Steve Bowen explained the methods they applied to achieve their goal.

“We’ve had a tremendous bird problem in our parking lot,” Bowen said. “These grackles have been taking over and our employees and people who come to visit us have been bothered because they are a mess.”

To get rid of them Bowen said they thought of several methods including using netting as well as having its maintenance personnel shoot them with pellet guns at night.

“We were told the netting is basically a waste of time and pellet guns may kill 20 to 30 at night, but that didn’t work either,” Bowen said.

He said other ideas included using a 12 gauge shotgun, but you can’t discharge a firearm in the city limits. Also, because the bird is a protective bird you can’t poison them.

Finally, Bowen said he was informed of a man out of Dallas who uses falcons to get rid of the grackles.

Bowen said at first he had his doubts, but the man gave him references and one of the biggest clients being Toyota in Dallas. He said it was decided to give the man a try.

Bowen said the man came down with two falcons and the first day he released one of the falcons, it went to attack the grackles. At night the man used a laser beam to shine into and form a circle in the tree.

“The first night the man came and shined the laser into the tree and made a circle which caused the falcon to fly toward it,” Bowen said. “As the falcon flew to the laser, it would scare the grackles to fly from their nesting area. He did this on every tree.”

Bowen said the next day the man used a clapper in which the grackles didn’t seem to like as well.

“The next night, the man came back with the falcon and repeated the process and there were about 70% less birds in the trees,” Bowen said. “The next morning there were only a few flying around the area.”

Before he left, he recommended that our maintenance men remove the nest and do so every two weeks if they hadn’t all departed.

Bowen said they also acquired one of the clapper devices to continue scaring the birds away.

“It’s amazing to watch the falcons work,” Bowen said. “By the third day it pretty much eliminated the grackles.”

Bowen said the man told them the grackles are migrating birds and if they come back, he could return to help with the problem.

Bowen told the board the cost was very reasonable at $700 for two days.