Propane cannons will be used to scatter birds

To ward off nearly a million feathery noisemakers, the city will use some sound effects of its own.

For weeks, blackbirds have been zeroing in nightly on a tree-lined Cape Girardeau neighborhood, and their ominous screeching and noxious-smelling calling cards have residents asking the city for help.

"They make a huge mess, they smell awful and they are a general nuisance," said animal control officer Aaron Baughn. "As dense as they are getting, they could actually pull some limbs off trees."

Beginning Monday, three propane cannons will be fired repeatedly to disrupt the birds along West Cape Rock Drive. The devices make a loud "boom" that can be heard for a mile or more.

The firing is scheduled to continue for three to five days, from 4:30 p.m. until dark. They will be set to go off two to three times a minute or in several rapid bursts. The sound of the cannons can be mistaken for gunfire, though no ammunition is ever discharged.

During this time, the city is asking residents to make as much noise in their yards as possible. Baughn said 350 leaflets were distributed to homes in the area with information about the birds and the city's attempts to disperse them.

"Run a lawn mower, clap hands, ring bells, beat pots and pans together," Baughn said. "Any loud, sharp noise will help deter the birds from sitting in your trees. The more people working together, the better."

At dusk, the trees along streets adjoining West Cape Rock Drive, including Lombardo and Jean Ann, grow so thick with European starlings, common grackles and other blackbirds that they appear to be growing black foliage.

"Those aren't leaves," Baughn said to an onlooker. "Those are the birds."

The birds use the branches of the bare tall trees as a staging area before settling into shorter evergreen trees, which have more sheltered branches and where in huddled masses the birds keep one another warm.

Baughn said his office has received complaints about the birds from this neighborhood for several weeks. After he observed them for about a week, he reported his findings and the city decided cannons should be used to disperse them.

The cannons won't make the birds leave town, but they should make them spread out more evenly, Baughn said. He expects to receive some complaints next week about how the noise has frightened pets and awakened babies from naps, but he is asking residents for patience while he works for everyone's benefit.

Jim Cooper, pastor of Maple United Methodist Church, said he welcomes the use of the cannons. He lives next door to the church on Jean Ann Drive.

"I come out every morning to get my paper and I try and scare them off," he said. "But they roost here every night."

When amassed in a tree, the birds have an odor that can trigger a gag reflex in a passerby. Their fecal mess, left on practically anything with surface space, is perhaps the most bothersome to residents.

"It's not inherently dangerous, but it's unclean," Baughn said.

Ford Drive resident Bill Tate has grown tired of washing his car and driveway, more than half a dozen times since the birds arrived with the first big snowfall.

"They've just about used up my patience," he said. "I don't normally pull my car into my garage, but I'm tired of washing it every day. It's like glue -- you can hardly get it off."

In December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture put out poisoned feed pellets to kill off some of the starlings at Jerry Seimers' dairy farm west of Cape Girardeau. The birds were consuming and fouling up feed lots with their feces. However, no one is sure if the poisoning had any significant effect on the local starling population, Baughn said.

"But they were surprised by as many as we did have die here," he said.

Cannons are a popular nonlethal method to dispersing problematic birds from cities and airports. They are often used in agriculture, but noise pollution protesters have influenced some farmers to use netting to cover fruit and vegetable crops.

European starlings are hardy and have voracious appetites. They were introduced to the continent in 1890, when 50 males and 50 females were released into New York City's Central Park, "to make it feel more like old-time London," Baughn said. They quickly spread, having no natural predators to keep them under control.

"Whatever it is in Europe that keeps these things in check, whether it's a disease or a predator, it isn't here," he said.

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160