Sidewalks that look freshly splattered with white paint in Hillsborough, North Carolina, aren't the result of a rushed renovation job. As the Wall Street Journal reports, they're the calling card of black vultures that have descended on the town's historic center, coating streets, roofs, and porches with corrosive droppings that can strip car paint and damage buildings. The mess has now moved from public-works staffers—who started retching when they tried to hose down one particularly inundated area and had to stop—to a courtroom: In March, the town sued retirees Kenneth and Linda Ostrand, accusing them of drawing the birds by feeding them deli meat and other scraps, despite a local ban on feeding wildlife.
The complaint alleges that the couple even went so far as to name some of the birds, per People. "Not good neighbors," one local resident recently told WTVD, calling the Ostrands "a little spooky" and adding that "I'm pretty sure every one of my neighbors has probably called" about the issue. The Ostrands, however, say they've stopped feeding the birds and want the case thrown out, calling the case in a court letter "based on hearsay rather than fact" and "no longer relevant," per the Journal.
The broader trend of vultures hovering overhead doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Vulture numbers are rising nationwide, with human development providing the roadkill and trash needed for a steady food supply for the birds, per a National Audubon Society spokesperson. Federal protections also make them challenging to remove. Hillsborough residents are split between seeing the big scavengers as a noxious nuisance or "nature's custodians."
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