Santa Clarita Real Estate

In the news this week was the story about the migrating Mudhens and how the Bridgport HOA wants to eradicate them, battle will brewing on this one you can be sure of that.

Hot controversy brewing this week here in Valencia, pitting the Bridgeport community Homeowners association residents against local environmentalists.

Seems the neighborhood waterways at Bridgeport are home to the American coot, a native bird also known as a Mudhen. The Mudhens migrate down from Alaska during the winter and make their homes at area lakes and at some communities within Santa Clarita that have water features such as ponds and lakes.

The Bridgeport Homeowners Association obtained a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2004 to be able to cull 50 coots because they had become a nuisance to residents, it was reported they took less than that amount.

According to the associations February 2008 newsletter "The Bridgeport Breeze", the HOA is once again discussing the removal of some of the birds.

Resident complaints are the birds eat their grass and landscape and leave their droppings on sidewalks.

Fury has erupted with local environmentalists who state the idea of killing birds who are in the Santa Clarita area only a few months a year is an outrage.

Teresa Savaikie, coordinator for the Santa Clara River Alliance, who is quoted from the Signal said "the lack of natural bodies of water in the area have left the birds no choice but to inhabit the man-made lakes".

"If you build it, they will come," Savaikie said. "This is just ridiculous. First you take it away by filling in all the small tributaries and pools that used to form naturally in the uplands. Then we replace it with man-made lakes and then we want to kill the species that are appearing."

photo credit: Francisca Rivas/Staff Photographer