Birds take over northwest Poplar Bluff

Poplar Bluff resembled a set piece for Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” in 1975. Multiple flocks, seeking security in damp weather, converged on the northwest edge of town to form a roost 100,000 strong. It remained to be seen if flares could drive them off.

Robbers in Pemiscot County made off with literal money bags in 1950, and an unlucky camper searched high and low for his wallet in 1925.

100 years ago

March 13, 1925

• After wrapping up a camping adventure, a Poplar Bluff man embarks on a new trip to find his wallet.

Herman Eichler’s pocketbook went missing last week while he and three friends explored a site called “Lost Indian Cave” (possibly Indian Cave at Meramec State Park). Eichler claimed he lost it while running from a mountain lion and said it contained valuable documents. The four campers searched for hours but eventually gave up and left the next morning.

Yesterday, Eichler developed his Kodak photos from the trip and finally found the wallet. It was under a log at the edge of the campfire, plainly visible in the flash of a group photo taken the last night of the trip. He plans to return tomorrow and retrieve it.

75 years ago

March 13, 1950

• Safe robbers in Pemiscot County made off with cartoonish loot last night: canvas bags of gold and silver coins.

Burglars jimmied open the door of the Braggadocio Bank last night and knocked the lock from the safe. Missing this morning are almost $600 in silver and gold coins, one- and five-dollar bills “in the old style large type,” and change. Many coins were reportedly bundled in bags stamped with the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis. Two guns and an engagement ring were also taken.

State troopers and deputies said this is the region’s second safe robbery within two weeks.

50 years ago

March 13, 1975

• Conservation agents attempted to shoo 100,000 birds last night. The clustered flock didn’t budge.

The situation began 10 days ago when a massive roost of grackles and purple-headed cowbirds took up residence in a Christmas tree grove near Highway 67 and Township Line Road.

“There’s a stream of those things coming in for about an hour every night,” resident C.W. Sliger said, describing “streams” of birds up to 200 feet wide converging on the site. They arrive around 6 p.m. and leave in the morning. The flares had little effect on the Hitchcockian mass of birds, he added.

Conservation Agent Supervisor Chester Barnes said 50 flares were used last night and another 100 will be shot off this evening. The goal is to drive the birds farther back into the woods where they are less of a nuisance for people. Barnes also headed off health concerns, saying the same damp weather encouraging them to flock together also kept their droppings from drying out and spreading histoplasmosis, a fungal lung disease.

A similar roost along Highway 67 was broken up several years ago by running fire truck lights and sirens for several evenings in a row.