BELLMEAD, TX — Mitigating the yearly incoming fowl invasion, those with the city of Bellmead have taken measures in the hopes to displace the egrets headed their direction.
Thousand of egrets migrate from Canada each year, hundred of which spend their spring in the trees of Bellmead.
The winged guests aren't welcomed by the city, however, because they cause mass waste and a foul odor.
Interim Bellmead City Manager, Yost Zakhary, explained that they nest, and they become a total nuisance for the land owners the surrounding neighbors.
"It can become quite the issue for the community," Zakhary said.
Egrets nest in condensed groups, often in dead foliage. They also tend to return to roost in the same location each migration, if the area is still available to them.
"They tend to migrate in groups, they come in a specific time every year, they typically come back to the same location if its there and available" said Bellmead's Public Works Director, Herb Blomquist.
The City surveyed their streets, locating the most popular egret nesting sight. Finding both Utah and San Jacinto Street to be most impacted, they have been working to cut down all dead trees and bushes where the egrets have left their uninhabited nests.
Expected to arrive in early March, those with the City of Bellmead hope the egrets will find their old stomping grounds unusable and create new ones elsewhere.
As a protected bird, the city hopes this will solve the community's problem without disturbing the fowl.
