'Crow whisperer' continues to amaze

Every fall, the starlings descended on Decatur like a plague. Screeching and flapping, thousands of birds seized control of the park and dive-bombed residents, who fought back by lobbing firecrackers and blasting them with a propane cannon.

Nothing worked until town officials called in James L. Soules. As owner of the Bird Repellent Co. in Decatur, the quiet little man said he could beat the birds, but there was a catch: He refused to tell anyone how he would do it. He demanded complete secrecy, warning officials not to spy on him.

Soules might have seemed like a swindler, but over the next few weeks, something astounding happened. The birds began to fly away. "I was amazed," said Dan Mendenall, a city official. "It was almost like he wished them away."

The last of those birds flew out of Decatur in the 1990s, and in the years since, the 83-year-old Soules has driven off others using tactics that are closely guarded. A modern-day pied piper, he has become a legend around Decatur, where people call him the "birdman," "shaman" or the "crow whisperer."

In bifocals and a cardigan, the grandfatherly looking Soules has chased birds from dozens of cities over a 50-year career. "He doesn't get rid of half or a third. They're all gone," said Paul Osborne, the mayor of Decatur. "I don't know what he does. He doesn't poison them. He doesn't use spray. You never see bird carcasses. They just fly away, and they don't come back."