Effective Immediately – Remove All Bird Feeders
The Board has become aware that the coyotes seen near the apartments last week were seen this weekend near the condominiums around building 40. This requires immediate action to minimize the danger to children and pets.
This publication from the Department of Natural Resources offers suggestions on how to discourage coyotes from one’s property. It also offers suggestions in the rare event you are confronted by a coyote. One of those suggestions is to remove anything that could be a food source. One such source are bird feeders. Not only is the seed itself a potential food source (yes, coyotes will eat that too), but the bird feeders attract rodents who also eat the seed and in turn, those rodents attract the coyotes. Effective immediately please remove all bird feeders.
Hunting for food is how coyotes were designed to survive, so please do not blame the coyotes for doing what coyotes do by instinct and necessity. They can’t go to the grocery store or the “drive through” for a meal. We need to encourage them to look for other, more appropriate food sources by dissuading them from looking here.
With that in mind, keep the covers on your trash bins securely fastened before putting them outside. If you can avoid putting them out until 6AM on Friday, please do so if you cannot close the lids tightly. Even “recyclables” bins could have something in it that at one time contained food, so keep that lid on tightly as well since coyotes have an excellent sense of smell.
The Board will continue to investigate other options to minimize any danger from the coyotes and the attached publication offers some suggestions for scaring them off.
Again, you must take down any and all bird feeders from the area near your condominium unit immediately.
Please be aware of your surroundings when outdoors and keep something with you while walking that can make a loud noise in the event you see a coyote.
Hopefully, the removal of bird feeders combined with careful handling of our garbage and recycle bins will successfully discourage coyote traffic at Overlook Lakes. A communication will be sent when it is determined to be safer to put out the bird feeders again.
Jannine Beyer, President
On Behalf of the OLCA Board of Directors
