Birds in the chimney - and a lot of them too

[Eddie24361]

Has anyone else had a large number of birds in their stove/chimney this fall? Two winters ago I found the screen that came with my Simpson Dura-Liner completely stopped up about February. It was the only place I had a problem, as I only had about a cup or so of black dust in the rest of the 16 ft chimney. I decided to leave the screen off and that fall I did have a couple of birds fly down into the stove. This fall I have gotten about a dozen birds from the stove. It is not the same bird (dead birds don't come back). It has become a real problem as they are tearing the rope seal loose from around the damper door (Encore 2550 cat). I am going to try to put a larger screen up tomorrow, but I just wondered why one or two last year and a dozen or more this year. This is not a summer problem, it only started about 2 weeks ago and now it's 1 or 2 birds a day.

 

[BrotherBart]

This is the first year in thirty seasons that I have had caps with screens and have never had a bird in any of the flues. But it is a strange bird year in Northern Virginia. I have noticed all Spring, Summer and Fall that I just do not see any birds around. And I know that predator outdoor cat of mine ain't THAT good.

 

[begreen]

Must be the election bringing strange birds to the DC area.

Put the screen back in. If you are burning dry wood, it should not be clogging.

 

[laynes69]

I've been here 6 years now and have never had a single bird in the flue. Well 2 nights ago I went to start a fire and there was a spotted bird in the firebox. It took me 10 minutes to catch it because it was flying back and forth through the basement. I don't want a screen on the cap, but if it happens again I may.

 

[DiscoInferno]

I have had bird problems in both chimneys, although it's quite sporadic. They destroyed the glass gasket in the Napoleon. I'm going to put some coarse hardware cloth around the inside or outside of the cap eventually.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good idea DiscoInferno. Make sure you do go large rather than small.

btw, for others, hardware cloth is cheap and very easy to work. It will keep out the birds.

 

[xman23]

That's the cap I had, the screen didn't make it to the end of the first year. Maybe that first year the wood was a little wet, but the issue is the cap and small screen are cold. The screens been gone for 10 years, the only bids have been 2 blue birds.

 

[weatherguy]

This is the first year in thirty seasons that I have had caps with screens and have never had a bird in any of the flues. But it is a strange bird year in Northern Virginia. I have noticed all Spring, Summer and Fall that I just do not see any birds around. And I know that predator outdoor cat of mine ain’t THAT good.

They're all in Eds stove :lol:

 

[marreque]

just put a screen on my cap. this is my second season burning and i had 1 bird last year. this year as soon as i cleaned the chimney i had birds coming down into the new T5. what a pain in the a$$!!

 

[firefighterjake]

As long as you don't have a raven tap, tap, tapping on the glass and cawing Never more you should be all set I would think.

 

[firefighterjake]

But the real question is . . . a bird in the stove is worth how many in the bush?

 

[DiscoInferno]

A bird not in my stove is worth $6 + $5 shipping for a new window gasket!

We didn't have ravens, but they do tap tap tap on the glass.