Turkey vultures roosting on a communications tower in north Bismarck got a special dose of fireworks and light tonight in an effort to drive them away.

Employees of the U.S. Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services used pyrotechnic devices and high intensity laser lights to try to force the big, red-headed birds to roost elsewhere.

"We're using a screamer shell that shoots out of a plastic pistol that we will shoot up there to get them off of the tower," Phil Mastrangelo, state director, said Monday.

As darkness falls, Wildlife Services plans to use a high-intensity laser light.

"It doesn't make any noise like the screamer shells, it's just harassment," said Mastrangelo.

Residents living near the communications tower on North 11th Street are tired of the messes their feathered neighbors are making.

"The droppings are what have people upset," said Mastrangelo.

Turkey vultures are carrion eaters, said Sandra Johnson, a nongame biologist with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.

People shouldn't be concerned that the big birds will carry off small animals or children on a wing that can span 5 1/2 feet.

"They don't eat anything like that," said Johnson. "They take off in the morning on warm air thermals in search of dead animals. They're nature's clean-up."

Wildlife services also plans to hang a stuffed turkey vulture on the tower, a tactic that has proven successful in other parts of the country. A trained climber must scale the tower to hang the mount, however.

"We will try to do that today or tomorrow," said Mastrangelo. "Some research done on dispersal methods for vultures found that stuffed turkey vultures hung up around a roost site can be a frightening device and help disperse the birds."

Wildllife Services disease biologist Ryan Powers located a turkey vulture mount at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Bismarck.

The mount was left behind by a former employee, said Ken Torkelson, a spokesman for the Bismarck office. "We are glad it found a good home," he added.

No one knows why turkey vultures are attracted to urban sites, although they seem to prefer roosting in cottonwoods or on towers for the height advantage.

In addition to droppings, which are acidic and can damage paint, the vultures have been known to peck at shingles and damage roofs, said Mastrangelo.

"Those are some of the conflicts they can cause," he added.

One of Mastrangelo's encounters with turkey vultures came when he was working in West Virginia.

"One of the communities had a small cemetery, and during the colder months visitors would put plastic flowers on the grave sites.The turkey vultures would perch on tombstones and peck at the plastic flowers. The tombstones were marred with bird droppings," Mastrangelo said. "I never found anyone who had an answer to what that was about."

It may take several nights of light shows and fireworks before the turkey vultures move off of the tower, Mastrangelo said.

"Hopefully they will go somewhere else. Where they go, no one knows."

(Reach outdoor writer Richard Hinton at 701-250-8256 or richard.hinton@bismarcktribune.com.)