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.

 

[gwstang]

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.

A freakin' duck??? Just wow! :laughing: I can imagine what kind of noise a duck would make trapped in there.

 

[Wagtail]

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.

G'day Alien. I checked both of my Field Guides (Simpson & Day for Aus and Dave Watts for Tassie) the first time I saw them = Chenonetta jubata Australian Wood Duck, a pale grey body with a chocolate-brown head.

I couldn't find "maned goose"... got another name for'em?

 

[dmccarty]

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....

Interesting. Our chimney has "caught" a couple of blue birds too. I actually found a dead one in a hollow metal fence post. Danged bird must have flow down the open pipe and could not get out.

When the birds fly down our chimney they eventually slide down to the wood stove and plop in front of the stove door. I wait until the outside light gets a bit low, turn off the lights in the house and open the front doors. The front door is a French door so opening both doors makes a big space. The birds will fly to the light, so if you can make the room dark they will fly outside. Sometimes I turn on the porch light if the sun is down a bit.

The chimney seems to catch a bird every spring or so.

I keep saying I will make a screen for the chimney but it just does not seem to happen. The wifey mentioned putting up a screen to the chimney sweep but he did not seem to understand what she wanted. :confused3:

Later,
Dan

 

[gwstang]

On my old chimney, I just took a piece of chicken wire and trimmed it to fit around the opening. large enough not to interfere with the draw, but small enough to keep the birds at bay...I don't know about a duck though...lol.

That chimney got hit by the EF-4 tornado so I had to get another one.

 

[oosik]

I've had blackbirds/starlings "fall" down both my pellet stove chimney and my 3" sewer stack vent. The starling eventually got into the hearth of the stove and when I opened the door it flew around the living room a bit and finally found the open door to outside. The blackbird never made it out and six months later I noticed his bones in the first compartment of my septic tank. It must have been quite difficult for the starling to get into the pellet stove chimney - I've got a cap on it and the openings are only an inch or so. I don't know what caused the blackbird to end up at the bottom of the sewer stack vent - perhaps overcome by the sewer gas.

 

[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.

I know I'm quoting myself but it seems that ducks are making a habit of flying down chimneys... not that I didn't believe you:

Golden firefighters save duck from chimney - The Denver Post

 

[stuckmotor]

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.

I've never seen a duck even roost in a tree. Do they sit on your chimney often?