Birds!

[n3pro]

So it's been in the 20's for the last few weeks daytime, good burning weather. For some reason it now decides to hit 52 so no burning all day. 7 o'clock down to 35 so I pile the wood in light the firestarter then hear a hell of a noise in the flue. As a new wood burner everything sounds like a chimney fire (plow truck, airplane, furniture delivery truck) anyway I though chit flue pipes on fire so I run outside and nothing from the chimney yet so I run back and and my two cats have there faces planted on the glass! I look in and there is a small bird huddled in front corner! I get the stove gloves and pull him out, the pallet would has begun to catch and put him outside.

The bird was about the size of my palm. ONE DAY NOT BURNING and I get a bird in the stove! I'm not sure if it is the same one but I had the same size bird in the wood stove one month after it was installed in March. If there are any other they are pretty cooked by now. He was so in shock he didn't move from where I put him so I went out to see if he was alright, I got almost ontop of him before he flew to my pleasing amazement I didn't see any black on him at all! So I'm assuming the chimney must be pretty clean.

 

[pgmr]

A young Phoenix perhaps??

 

[BJ64]

What a report!

LOL at young Phoenix. Just be happy it was not a buzzard.

 

[myzamboni]

They're called chimney caps. Look into installing one.

 

[waynek]

Bird story - An Uncle has a cabin on the backwaters of the Mississippi River and it is gathering place for the menfolk in the extended family to fish, playcards and drink beer. Several of us were fishing the week before Thanksgiving...the fish really bite just before freeze up. After a successful morning of fishing we were at the cabin to warm up and fix a noon meal. A box woodstove was lit and heating up nicely with a kettle of stew warming on top. There was a loud keplunk and scratching in the stove pipe that startled the cabin occupants. Within a few seconds there was a commotion in the stove, then a stove lid popped open and a full grown Canada Goose come blasting out. The cabin occupants gave chase to the squaking goose and finally captured the it, but not before the cabin was a total mess. While fishing that morning we heard the gunshots of duck and goose hunters. We speculated that a hunter shot this goose out of the sky and it did a free fall down the stovepipe.

 

[begreen]

n3pro, just be glad it wasn't a flock of geese. Not good for stoves or planes.

 

['bert]

Canada Goose in the morning... he meant no harm, he was just looking for your beer :coolsmile:

 

[drewboy]

That is the drama and excitement that I expect on a Sat. morning when I log on... :lol:

 

[savageactor7]

Well good thing you caught it right away and was able to save it. A poster once reported here a bird got in the stove and in desperation to get out pecked out the stove gasket. And if you have tree around the house with overhanging limbs just about anything can get in the chimney.

 

[homebrewz]

A friend used to occasionally take birds out of the stove, an old Federal, when the stove had been off for a while.
He must have missed one, because while cleaning the top, he found a dead starling.. incinerated. It looked like
Han Solo frozen in carbonite. He poked with his finger and it instantly broke into a million pieces.

Man, a goose in the chimney. That was a good story.
Anyway, n3pro, it was probably a starling. They are a non-native that get into everything.

73z,
homebrewz

 

[WoodMann]

I've had 2 birds in my dy, both times when I left the mesh guard of from cleaning..........

 

[Todd]

I have found dead birds in my clean out and even had an episode with a bat before I wised up and installed a cap.

 

[bsruther]

How many BTUs will a small bird put out?

 

[n3pro]

They're called chimney caps. Look into installing one.

always had one.

 

[n3pro]

Forgot the wife had a picture on the camera from the first time.

 

[atvdave]

They're called chimney caps. Look into installing one.

always had one.

OK... chimney cap with a screen....

 

[JerseyWreckDiver]

After many years contracting I had seen quite a few things but when I started doing Home/building Inspection several years ago the list got quite a bit bigger. Squirrels galore, birds (no geese yet, my god!) Raccoons, mice, rats, possums, snakes, spiders that could eat a cat. When doing an inspection, if a flu connector pipe is loose I will pull it to get a look at the flu/bottom of the chimney. The small pipes for things like gas stoves or pellet stoves are the worst, Squirrels get caught in there upside down and then can't turn around or back up, the dampers closed so they are just screwed, they just die a slow, terrible death stuck inside there (usually these houses have been vacant...)

Buyers watch me getting into an old fireplace and before I open the damper I knock on it with my flashlight a few times then listen for a moment, most get a puzzled look and ask what I'm doing. "just knocking to see if anyone is home before I open it...." It's freaky to open one and shine you're light up and see something staring back at you... People hate it when you let animals into there houses.

 

[JerseyWreckDiver]

Forgot the wife had a picture on the camera from the first time.

That is a really awesome picture. Would you mind if I use it? Maybe on my website information pages?

 

[n3pro]

Forgot the wife had a picture on the camera from the first time.

sure, permssion granted.

That is a really awesome picture. Would you mind if I use it? Maybe on my website information pages?

 

[rustynut]

ok jackpine,
that was a good one
got one along that line:
so, once upon a time
UNCLE NEIL (thats what we call him anyhow) who is in "LOVE" with hunting birds
brings another glorious day to an end
home safe and sound and with bounty
gets things put away and retires to the home to spend the evening with his wonderful wife
next day he's out and about
wife goes to the freezer for something for dinner
opens the lid on the freezer and has a drake mallard "EXPLODE" out of there in her face
wish i could have been a fly on the wall for that one
old boy enjoys telling that one................
had to share that one with youall
rustynut
:bug:

 

[rustynut]

i'm guessing he should have cleaned that bird before he put it in the freezer..................

 

[LeonMSPT]

Working for the P.D. before I went back to P.T. school for five years. Got a call one morning, a woman was reporting "something" in her chimney... She sounded pretty upset on the phone according to the dispatcher. "Send someone, QUICK!"

So I dub over to the house... she comes running out in her housecoat... "Come ON! It's over the fireplace! It sounds BIG!"

I go in and give the handle a rap with my flashlight, sure enough... scuffle scuffle... "Hmmm.."

I wedged my knee against the fireplace screen so whatever it is stays in there...

Put my hand on my gun and unsnap the holster...

She says, "What're you gonna do?"

"Gonna shoot it... (LOL)

I pulled the damper open, and what drops into the fireplace?

A great big raven... he drops into the fireplace and sits there looking at me, then her, then me, then her...

Snapped the keeper back down on the gun, won't be needing that.

Just moved the screen enough, and wiggled my hands around some to drive him into a corner, picked him up and carried him outside to let him go. Not before he made the rounds though... he never seemed terribly upset by the whole affair. Flew away when I let him go, then washed my hands well with soap and water and went back to the station to tell the tale.

Bird gets in there, and can't get any horizontal speed to generate lift...

 

[uptrapper]

Lived in a rental house when I first got married and 2 or 3 times a week we would have birds in the basement. We could never figure out how they got there, but it really wasn't a big deal there was a door to the garage from the basement and we would just open the door and turn out the basement light and the birds would fly out through the garage. We had some trouble with the fan on the furnace and called the land lord. He sent the furnace guy over to take a look, when we went down the basement there was a bird flying around. He said its not uncommon for birds to sit on a chimney and pass out from the exhaust gas and fall down the chimney, he found a chimney brick that had been broken out and thats how the birds got in. They sent another guy to fix the brick, but didn't put a screen on the cap. That was about 10 years ago, I bet there is a pile of birds in that chimney 3' deep now.

mike

 

[firefighterjake]

So it's been in the 20's for the last few weeks daytime, good burning weather. For some reason it now decides to hit 52 so no burning all day. 7 o'clock down to 35 so I pile the wood in light the firestarter then hear a hell of a noise in the flue. As a new wood burner everything sounds like a chimney fire (plow truck, airplane, furniture delivery truck) anyway I though chit flue pipes on fire so I run outside and nothing from the chimney yet so I run back and and my two cats have there faces planted on the glass! I look in and there is a small bird huddled in front corner! I get the stove gloves and pull him out, the pallet would has begun to catch and put him outside.

The bird was about the size of my palm. ONE DAY NOT BURNING and I get a bird in the stove! I'm not sure if it is the same one but I had the same size bird in the wood stove one month after it was installed in March. If there are any other they are pretty cooked by now. He was so in shock he didn't move from where I put him so I went out to see if he was alright, I got almost ontop of him before he flew to my pleasing amazement I didn't see any black on him at all! So I'm assuming the chimney must be pretty clean.

Somewhere in this story there is a moral . . . something like a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the stove or something along those lines.

 

[firefighterjake]

Bird story - An Uncle has a cabin on the backwaters of the Mississippi River and it is gathering place for the menfolk in the extended family to fish, playcards and drink beer. Several of us were fishing the week before Thanksgiving...the fish really bite just before freeze up. After a successful morning of fishing we were at the cabin to warm up and fix a noon meal. A box woodstove was lit and heating up nicely with a kettle of stew warming on top. There was a loud keplunk and scratching in the stove pipe that startled the cabin occupants. Within a few seconds there was a commotion in the stove, then a stove lid popped open and a full grown Canada Goose come blasting out. The cabin occupants gave chase to the squaking goose and finally captured the it, but not before the cabin was a total mess. While fishing that morning we heard the gunshots of duck and goose hunters. We speculated that a hunter shot this goose out of the sky and it did a free fall down the stovepipe.

No moral here . . . perhaps a political campaign promise.

"And if I am elected, I promise a goose in every stove."