One 'flue' down the chimney

[Wagtail]

Fun morning today as my peace & quiet was disturbed by a rattling in my wood-heater's chimney. Fortunately, it's not cold enough to start a fire but winter is coming soon enough. The chimney was swept in January in preparation.

I thought the bird was perhaps thinking of building a nest, so I banged on the flue to discourage it = no luck, I could still hear it although less frequently. I went outside, had a pipe & a thought... came back in and opened the heater's door and out flew a starling! The poor thing was even more confused as I have floor to ceiling 'french' windows & doors. A lot of banging into glass trying to get out, so I decided that the house needed a wee bit of airing out anyway and opened a couple of doors. I then went outside again so as to give the bird one less thing to worry about and, sure enough, it found the open door (much like 'Barry the Bat' did last month).

Yes, I know that it was just a starling, but they're not in plague proportions here in Aus and they do eat their fair share of insects around here.

 

[gwstang]

Good one. About 20 years ago, I kept having blue birds getting down the chimney into the wood heater during the spring. No heat needed at the time. They would make a heck of a noise too. I would open the door and catch them and place them outside. That fall, when I got on the roof to run the steel brush down the chimney for cleaning...I found out why they kept fall into the heater. They had built a heck of a nest and if I had used the heater without cleaning the chimney, it would have smoked up the house without anywhere for the smoke to go. It was just about sealed up tight with sticks/brush/whatever they would use for a nest. I was quite surprised and it took me quite a while to break through and get rid of the nesting material. I added a cap that has the wire mesh on it to prevent that from happening again.

 

[Wagtail]

G'day gwstang! If only I could put a screen up there... unfortunately most, if not all, woods for heating are some variant of eucalyptus or pine which means a lot of creosote-like build-up during the heating season (mid April to mid November). A screen would trap more of the particulates. Oh well, you play the hand you're dealt, eh?

Mind you, it's the first time I've had a critter pull a Santa Routine.

 

[Alien]

We had an old wetback stove when we bought the house so I ripped it all out and when I removed the chimney there was the remains of a bat. uuurghh.

 

[MarkF48]

Twice I've had a duck fall down the chimney flue. Unfortunately didn't end well for either duck. Ended up putting a screened cap on the top.

 

[JamesHW]

We had a mocking bird get trapped in our flue one summer when we lived in a cabin in the woods, so I got on the roof and removed the cap and could see the bird at the bottom and could see it couldn't get out, so I tied a piece of wood to a rope and lowered down and the mocking bird jumped right on and allowed itself to be lifted up and out. Funny thing, this bird would attack us when we walked past its tree where it nested, but after I freed it from the flue it stopped buzzing us when we walked by (although the cats got no such reprieve).

 

[PILOON]

Twice I've had a duck fall down the chimney flue. Unfortunately didn't end well for either duck. Ended up putting a screened cap on the top.

My daughter had that happen and she called good ole dad for help.
I netted the duck with my fish net and we washed down the duck and it happily flew away.
I identified it as a wood duck, very colorful male.

The wood duck is one that nests in trees unlike most that nest on shore line reeds.

 

[Wagtail]

G'day MarkF48 & PILOON. Ducks. That's a fair size bird to fall down a flue.

Oh, and Aus has native wood ducks. I've had a mating pair wander around my property early in the morning.

 

[Bull Of The Woods]

I've never had smoked duck, how was it Mark?....lol

 

[Alien]

G'day MarkF48 & PILOON. Ducks. That's a fair size bird to fall down a flue.

Oh, and Aus has native wood ducks. I've had a mating pair wander around my property early in the morning.

We call them wood ducks but if they are the ones I am thinking of the correct name is maned geese. Yep, they are geese. The maned bit comes from the feathers on the back of their necks that stand up when they are cranky or chasing competitors.

We actually have 6 pairs that wander around our house and a couple of times they have bought their little babies to see us. Real cute.