The bird flue

A couple weeks after we moved into this house, I was in bed one morning and heard the blinds in the kitchen clanging around. Thinking it was the kids, I yelled at them to cut it out. When it didn't stop, I marched out into the kitchen ready to enforce some discipline, and found that it wasn't the kids after all...it was a BIRD IN MY HOUSE!!!

It was trying to get out the window and was flapping around in the blinds. After a little flight around the kitchen and dining room, I managed to get it to fly out the back door. Eww!

I figured out that it had gotten in through the open flue, so I closed it. There is a cap on the chimney, and Steve didn't see a nest up there or anything, but there was a tiny gap where he thought the bird had managed to get in. We figured it wouldn't happen again...

WRONG! For the past 4 or 5 days I have been hearing another bird flapping/ scratching around in the chimney. Steve kept trying to open the flue and get it to come down into a bag so he could take it outside, but it wouldn't. He got up on the roof again and chicken wired the pipe and the gap around the chimney cap, so now this bird was really trapped! Well, last night he tried again and the bird was evidently out of energy...he managed to get it out. We took him to the backyard and offered him some bread and water, but he wasn't interested. I think it was too late...he just walked around a little bit, and then lay down in the grass. This morning, he was in birdie heaven. Sorry- we tried, little bird.

We had another bird (I think it's a female cardinal with a pretty orange beak) that kept pecking at our gameroom and dining room window. My neighbor 3 doors down said it was doing the same thing at her house. It's not like it was flying into the window, or pecking at its reflection- it's like it really wanted in! I haven't seen her in awhile. Hopefully she's not down someone's chimney!