There's a bird in my fireplace!

This morning, as I was sitting in my living room drinking my coffee, I heard a loud skritching scrabbling noise from the chimney over my wood heater (the wood heater doesn't actually get used much).

Suddenly, a beak poked out from the top of the glass door. Then the whole bird appeared:


It was a reasonably big blackbird.

I did what I normally do when this kind of thing happens. I phoned my mum. (I know, but she has a good 30 years more home owning experience than me, and definitely more wood fire experience). She said that in her experience (see, usefull), birds are exhaused by the time the get down the chimney, and can't get back up. She suggested using a towel to trap the bird and take it outside.

So I got set up with a drop sheet outside the fireplace, to catch any ash (which turned out to be a very good idea), and a large towel to try to catch the bird in. By this time the bird had moved to the back of the stove and I couldn't catch it. So I left the door open and stood back, to see if the bird would make an appearance. Sure enough, it came flying out. Fortunately, I had the main door and a window in a side room wide open. The bird flew down towards the door, spotted the window and obviously liked the look of it better, and flew straight out. So that worked out well.

I am thinking that given that I have athsma problems, and therefore have problems with wood smoke anyway, that removing the fireplace, and also the chimney, might be a good idea. One bird in the fireplace was interesting, but I don't want this to be a regular occurance.