The birds - part two

So that same night in January, after the bird went out the door, under his own wing power, my husband blocked the hole where the bird  had (apparently) gotten in through the outside vent. 

Those (above) are two 1’ lengths of 2x4’s blocking the hole.

We very tired of birds at this point and did nothing more. 

Friday morning, as soon as the middle dropped off the pups, they went right to the fireplace. And following them, I could hear a bird in the fireplace. 

Big sigh. 

I went and got heavy brown paper from another room, scissors and tape. With my back to the fireplace, I started to cut the paper to cover the light coming in the big living room window, so we could release the bird, and have it go out the front door toward daylight. 

Chaos ensued behind me. I turned around to see a bird loose in the room with the dogs jumping and snapping at it. All three went toward the front door with me hot on their trail to open the door. 

I turned around, after propping the glass security door open, to see two quiet dogs and no bird. My husband hunted all over the house, and could not find a bird, so we assume it went out over my head the minute I opened the door, and I just did not see it.

It was definitely not the same bird as last night. It was much smaller. 

We looked outside and the boards were still on top the vent. So we think this second bird was already in the vent. And we blocked this second bird in when we put the boards on the vent and reclosed the fireplace. 

And I think the dogs actually let the bird out of the fireplace by nosing the panel on the bottom which opens to the controls. 

We removed the boards from the vent outside, took the glass off the fireplace and my husband blew air up the vent to encourage any other birds to flee. I was watching outside, no birds flew out of the vent. 

We put a wooden box in front of the control panel. I stuffed bags in the vent. The dogs are keeping watch.

That was the end of birds in the house, two was definitely enough for a lifetime. 

We borrowed a shop vac and middle and my husband cleaned out the chimney vent from the outside of the house. 

They replaced the screen on the outside vent. They added a second screen inside the outside vent, directly over the pipe opening. So there is now an original screen on the bottom, a new screen on the top and a new screen on the inside. And my husband is adding this outside vent to his mental check list. 

We did not use the fireplace until the fireplace guy was able to come clean/check. It was more than a month wait, they are very busy. The inside logs have to be in very precise locations for the fireplace to work correctly. Ours were all over the place/askew.

The birds - part one

On a Thursday in January, just after 11am when I had finished putting away the Christmas decorations, the puppies and I sat down in the living room and I heard a noise. 

I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and realized a large black bird was in our gas fireplace. This is a sealed gas fireplace, so the bird was behind the glass. The bird had clearly come down the vent. 

I called my husband and told him to come home very quickly. 

He said he would, but commented that he had no idea WHAT exactly he was going to be able to do, so I needed to figure out a plan/think. 

Next I called our neighbor who is a retired engineer, woodworker and very practical guy. He said he would be over in about a half hour. But he also said he had no idea WHAT he was going to do. He also said I needed a plan. 

I was freaking out this whole time, with the bird flapping and pecking, trying to get out. 

I called the local company who installed our fireplace. He said one service man was on vacation and the other was working out of town and there was no one to help. However, over the phone, he told me how to get the front off the fireplace to get to the bird. I listened very carefully. 

I called two critter control places. The first was on vacation, out of town. The second said he had a busy day scheduled, but could come in the evening if needed. And he told me an important thing, he said if we could get everything dark, and the open front door was the only “light” thing, a released bird would simply fly right out the door. 

Our problem - the living room window is huge, does not open, is very “light” all day. 

This is what we tried - 

The front is off the fireplace. That is a huge plastic bag taped to the fireplace and to a chair. There is a wooded box under the bag.  Inside the bag, on top the box, are several pieces of wood for the bird to land. There is a light for encouragement. 

Two puppies and I were on the loveseat, my husband and neighbor were on the couch, we were on bird watch all afternoon. 

The bird would fly into the bag, but would not stay in the bag long enough for the guys to grab it. 

Periodically they would send me up to the attic with a roll of wrapping paper to beat on the fireplace vent pipe. That would stir up the bird, but it never stayed in the bag long enough to get it. 

All this took the entire afternoon. And then at some point the bird made its way behind part of the fireplace and was quiet. We thought it was stuck, dying. We disassembled our trap and the guys put the front back on the fireplace. Our neighbor went home. 

Later, as dusk was falling, suddenly we heard a lot of activity and the bird reappeared behind the glass. Clearly the bird had been taking a nap.

I put the puppies in their crate, we turned off every light in the house, closed every door, lowered the living room shades. I turned on all the porch lights.  

My husband took the fireplace front off, again. And we simply let the bird out/loose. And it went right out the front door. The relief was immense.  

This whole process took about six hours. Little did we know, there was part two, the next morning. 

Peanut bird feeder

Wild birds Unlimited is my go to company for bird supplies. (Great gift ideas.)

Higher prices, much better quality, I have a feeder from them that is over 20 years old.

We added four new (speciality) feeders and a third birdbath to our bird area in the back this year.

A hummingbird, oriole, core/solid and the peanut feeder (above).

The peanut feeder empties shockingly quickly. We thought it was squirrels, but it is the birds. I need to find bigger peanuts that are harder to remove. They are natural/in shell with no salt.