10/22/13 Took my nephew to Fayette County to do some fly fishing for Bass. Fished until early afternoon with little luck. A Northern has parked itself right on top of the lake and the wind was horrible. What was even worse was what his 2 month old truck looked like when we got back to the ramp. It was covered in Buzzard [censored]. His black truck was almost totally white in the bed, the top and hood. Plus they had scratched the paint in several spots and eaten a lot of rubber around the windows and doors. What a mess. My truck was right next to his and they left it alone except for a few nibbles on the windshield rubber. What is up with this. I had heard of it before but this is the first time I've actually seen the damage. It's the last time I go to Fayette until I hear that the county has fixed the problem. Is there a problem with the other lakes in the area? How about Bastrop? I can't imagine why there a protected bird. Like Cormorants, they would be great practice for Goose season.

I haven't heard about the buzzards in a while. Need to write letters to LCRA, the county has nothing to do with the lake.

it was going on a a couple months ago out there. They need to get rid of those dumb birds.

It has been a problem for years, I worked out there during school back in 04 & 05 and they were bad. Only thing we did to try and help control them was keep the trash cans empty. I offered to set there with a .22 and pop em off but they told me no. Best thing to do is park in the middle of the lot not by the trash cans or under trees.

Not sure about buzzards, but 2 years ago birds at Fayette ate $275.00 worth of rubber trim off my truck. They were actually feeding on swarms of little green bugs that land on the vehicles and if the bugs are around your door seals they get ate too.

A couple different species of vultures ("buzzards") are protected species under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The Act says it is unlawful without a waiver to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill or sell birds listed.

So not much LCRA can do to protect vehicles from being damaged by the critters unless they get a waiver.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migratory_Bird_Treaty_Act_of_1918#Partial_listing_of_covered_species

I always park with my boat trailer backed up to the restroom area. There is always something going on around there and the buzzards stay away. You may want to do the same thing. You could also take a large tarp and wrap your truck with it. It may look stupid but it will protect your truck.

You know, Lake Bastrop has tons of buzzards too but they all hang out on the high-line electrical towers over in Mid Lake
Cove. I have never heard of anyone being victimized by buzzards in North Shore Park.

If you ever go postal and start taking them out, take some of those dang cormorants, too!

I hate to say it but it is hard to keep a straight face reading this post. ALthough I am sorry for the damage that was caused.

occasionally throughout the day you'll here a starter gun used to chase those birds away. never heard of damage on the trop. maybe that's why.

I know one of the guides had that happen at Gibbons Creek a month or so ago........did quite a bit of damage to his truck......

I'm sorry

RANT: Ok so i remember reading this thread a while back... sorry to bump but those bastards did the same thing to my truck today!!!! And about 10 other cars!

Ate all the vinyl off the roof, scratched the hood, [censored] everywhere, ate the plastic rivets in my beadliner, tore off the plastic on the cowl, wiper blades, you name it. When I came back to park prairie around 12:30 the parking lot was COVERED in vultures. I will be getting a cover for the truck because I fish at Fayette pretty often...

That stinks, I was planning on going to Fayette Sunday. Is one park better than the other as far as the buzzards go? I wounder if the LCRA would get pissy if I had a propane cannon in the bed of the truck going off every 30 minutes.

They like the glue which is made with animal fat. Did a job on my truck a few years back.

Park Prairie ramp seems to be worse but they can be at either.

Yep, same thing happened to us at Fayette on 12/27/13. They tore all of the door rubber up, around the windshield and buzzard [censored] everywhere.