Reply With QuoteWell done!
We sometimes had birds (usually starlings) down the chimney behind old gas fire. Shouldn't have but removed fire to let them out.
My father often had birds, evidenced by their bones, down flue and into solid fuel stove
Yesterday evening I was in the garden mucking around with my roses when SWMBO hooted from the dining room “There is a bird in the lounge chimney”! Reversing my initial eye roll I wandered inside and sure enough I could hear the fluttering. Wondering what on earth a bird could find attractive about the inside of our chimney, I thought with a bit of luck it might fly back out. Well no such luck and my options were limited as we are talking about a sealed log burner in that room. To her great credit, SWMBO came up with a solution! Put a work light in the grate so if the bird is too big to extend it’s wings to fly out then it might work it’s way down the side of the flue towards the light source.
So, work light duly installed to illuminate the grate, (not pointing upwards which might frighten the bird), the log burner door opened and a duvet cover fitted over the opening we awaited any developments as we had dinner next door in the dining room. 10 minutes later the fluttering tone became louder so I went back in and slowly pulled the duvet cover aside to have a look and ‘behold and lo’ there was a medium sized blackbird at the back of the grate calmly giving me the gimlet eye, not panicking or fluttering, just calmly looking at me which I must admit, the calmness of the bird in the circumstances did impress me.
I then gently pushed the duvet cover forward and managed to get both hands around the bird (without any attempted pecking from a sizeable and sharp beak) carried the wrapped bird out through the dining room doors and carefully unwrapped it on the outside table, the bird hopped to it’s feet and strongly flew off to the trees at the bottom of the garden, seemingly uninjured by it’s experience albeit pretty grubby from the chimney! Wow, result! Delighted we were able to save it and release it unharmed!
Sorry for the rambling tale but I thought a few of you might like it!
Well done!
We sometimes had birds (usually starlings) down the chimney behind old gas fire. Shouldn't have but removed fire to let them out.
My father often had birds, evidenced by their bones, down flue and into solid fuel stove
Good work. I feared that you were going to say you lit the log burner.
Thanks for sharing that, very well done a great outcome.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
We had this a few times until we had a special cover fitted to the chimney- didn’t cost much as I recall.
So clever my foot fell off.
I wonder if juvenile birds are just figuring things out at the moment, I opened the internal garage door just in time to see a pigeon fly through the open main door past my nose ( I ducked), I heard a thud as it hit the end window and a second laster flew out the same way it flew in, then a day later there was a similar thud on the patio window and a stunned pigeon on the floor outside, thankfully it sorted itself out quickly and flew off.
Cheers..
Jase
I've had this many times, albeit I have an open fire place. I've had black birds, magpies, and others I can't remember.
Glad you got the bird out safely. It's a nightmare when they fly around your house sh**ing everywhere.
The most odd occasion however involved a squirrel. I had left the front door open (after brining shopping in) and a squirrel let itself in and casually wondered into my living room whilst I was watching TV. Upon spotting one of my dogs it scuppered into an armchair. I had to carry the armchair into the garden, remove the fabric liner underneath and encourage the squirrel out. Job done, so I thought. Back to watching TV, and the squirrel re-entered the living room via the chimney! Sadly, one of my dogs was too quick this time; he caught and killed the squirrel. So began the next task of encouraging my dog to drop his latest toy.
Good skills!
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Well done - very heartening to read.
We have had covers fitted on all our chimneys over the years - well worth considering
We woke one morning to find maggots all at the base of our chimney where our fire is. Some had already become flies.
We believe a bird had got stuck, died and rotted which caused the maggots to fall out of the chimney. Most unpleasant.
Glad you got the bird away and you don’t want this to happen to you.
I fitted one of these covers just to be on the safe side.Originally Posted by TheFlyingBanana
Without a cover on your chimney you got away lightly.
We have been watching a pair of crows raise a family of 4 in the top of one of our neighbours chimneys.
The din was enough to have me up there evicting them, let alone the mess. But they left them alone
Good idea with the light though, I'd never have thought of that.
Here`s a pidgeon i rescued from our chimney;
Gentlemen, thank you for your kind and interesting replies.
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