Every year egrets look for places to nest in North Texas. The migratory birds, protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1918, are beautiful creatures that can leave quite a mess.
The birds over ran a Carrollton neighborhood in recent years and 500 of them called part of Fort Worth's Tanglewood Neighborhood home last year.
This year home owners and the city worked together to scare the birds away from Tanglewood, near TCU, by making noise and putting up nets and shiny objects. The city's Code Compliance Department says they were successful, no nests have been set up and a large chunk of birds have taken over another area, a city park.
A city biologist estimates that 4,000 egrets are located in the trees of Sylvania Park's eastern half. They can be seen flying in and out of the park, fetching leaves and twigs on the ground and nesting in just about every branch possible.
"They're everywhere, we're infested by them," said Sheila Stone, an employee at Dixie House Cafe across from the park. "I see them every morning. I mean all day long."
The egrets and a few herons, have taken up shop near the Riverside Community Center. There's nothing the city can do about them, other than be ready to scare them off next year like Tanglewood did this year.
"They were actually able to stop them from building nests and they evidently moved here and found some friends," said Mike Camp, superintendent of the city's animal care and control services.
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The egrets are federally protected once they begin to nest and have eggs in those nests. You can only harass or bother them before they nest. Now that they are nesting, no one can interfere with them, their eggs, feathers or nests.
The parks and community services department says it won't book any events at shelters on the park's eastern side in an effort to keep people away from the birds. Fliers have been sent out to neighbors and neighborhood associations in the area informing residents about the birds. The city has also installed several signs warning park goers not to interfere with the birds or face possible fines and jail time.
All the city really can do this year is clean up after the egrets.
"There's going to be a daily inspection of the park making sure the dead birds are removed," said Sandra Youngblood, PACS assistant director. "The injured birds are handled appropriately."
Camp says they'll be taken to a wildlife sanctuary, likely in Waco. Last year they rescued 100 injured egrets in Tanglewood from a rookery of just 500 birds. They expect many more birds to need rehabilitation and a place to go this year too.
"We think by the time they're nested, hatched and gone, there will be over 6,000," Camp said.
So, for the rest of the year the egrets will be welcomed residents in the park but the city doesn't want that repeating again. Youngblood says it's the first time egrets have nested in a city park as far as anyone can remember.
"I think the plan next year is going to be the same thing we did down in Tanglewood," Camp said.
Parks staff will be trained on how to spot the early signs of nesting, so that they know where the birds may be trying to set up nests next and keep an eye on Sylvania Park.
"We're going to have to monitor it for the next three years, to make sure they don't come back here," Youngblood said.
The reason the egrets aren't wanted is that their waste often destroys the trees they nest in and any plant life below. Officials expect the waste to be substantial by as early as August. Egrets nest from April through October.
