OFFICALS EXPECT ANNUAL CONCENTRATION OF STARLINGS ANY DAY NOW

The birds of winter will soon likely flock to Cape Girardeau for warmer roosts and residents are encouraged to scare the birds away before their feces can cause health problems for them or their pets.

"Every year cold weather is what drives them in, and we have an early cold now," said Don Roberts, captain of administrative services at the Cape Girardeau Police Department. "Since we got an early cold snap, we're beginning to see traces of them in the west end, which could or could not mean we're going to have some more."

For the past four or five years, Roberts and City Animal Control Officer Charles Stucker say, large numbers of the birds, comprised of mainly starlings, have taken to roost in various parts of the city.

"You never know where they're going to set up shop," Roberts said. Last winter the birds generally massed themselves in the west and northwest parts of the city, he said. Two winters ago they became a problem at or near Southeast Missouri State University.

"What they're doing," Stucker said, "is they'll come into town because it's warmer than a rural-type area. Sometimes it's 2 to 3 degrees warmer, which makes a big difference to a bird."

Trees that keep their foliage during the winter months are sought out by the birds. This includes firs, pines, evergreens, and magnolias, Stucker said. Cape Girardeau has a lot of these types of trees, he said.

"I've seen branches break off with birds on them. That's how thick they get in trees like that."

Stucker said city residents need to realize that when the birds congregate, they produce a lot of feces under the trees they roost in. When this happens, he said, humans can contract bronchial-type conditions, such as colds, from breathing in the feces when it dries.

The feces can also cause health problems for pets and pet owners should not let them come into contact with it, he said. If a pet does come into contact with the feces, the pet should be washed off. Stucker said he's primarily concerned with pets walking through the feces and then licking it off their paw pads.

Anyone having problems with roosting birds needs to see that the birds are driven off before the birds leave a large amount of feces, he said. Residents can accomplish this, Stucker said, by making some type of noise to scare the birds away.

Anything can work: a trash can lid or pan can be banged, or a bong-type bell like an old dinner bell can be rung. A man who lives on Perryville Road uses a "wood clapper" made of two large pieces of wood, he said. While sitting in his house, the man uses a rope to pull the wood pieces up, and then lets them fall.

"It's like hands slapping together," Stucker said, "and that works too only in this kind of weather it's hard to do."

Residents may also request permission from the police department, in major situations, to use fireworks to scare away the birds, he said. But at most, he said, the fireworks can only be used about an hour before dusk.

Whatever is used, Stucker said, the noise-making needs to be done every night until the birds stay away. Sometimes this will take only a few nights, he said, depending on what extent the birds are entrenched.

Birds are creatures of habit that come into the areas the same time every night, said Stucker. Generally about an hour before dusk is when "the problem really starts," he said.

Roberts said the birds return in the morning to the fields west of the city, looking for food.

Stucker said city workers can be called to come out and assess areas where the birds are roosting. For serious situations the city has an agricultural gas cannon to scare the birds away.

Stucker said his intent is to use the cannon to keep the birds out of the city altogether.

"We have gone into areas where they were a problem and used the cannon. But once we do that they move, and if I can start moving them south and west again I can get them to a place where they'll stay; where they'll have access to trees ... on the edge of town."