The Bird People

A few weeks ago, we realized that some birds (at least 2) somehow made their way down a vent on our roof and ended up - stuck - in a piece of 12' long ducting directly above our kitchen stove. It was horrible for a few days - we could hear their wings and their chirping and knew that they needed help but didn't know what to do for them. We called two pest control companies but couldn't get anybody out soon enough and, within a short period of time, the chirping stopped. I tried to make myself believe that perhaps they somehow escaped but, instinctively, I knew that they didn't. On Memorial Day, an electrician friend of ours was kind enough to come out to the house and help my husband "take care" of the problem. They had initially hoped to take the vent over the stove off and retrieve the birds that way. It didn't take long to discover, though, that that was going to be impossible - just because of the way our vent and hood were installed during the homes' construction 5+ years ago. They decided to go up into the attic space instead and cut through the ducting. I did not assist (or even supervise) but was later informed that two deceased birds (and lots of twigs) were found. Everything was cleaned up and we made plans to, on another day, get a piece of screen to put at the top of the vent so that something similar would never happen again.

Unfortunately, it did happen again.

A few nights ago, I heard what sounded like baby chirps up above my stove. The chirps were very faint and sounded far away - not close like the other ones. I figured that the nest and birds were closer to the roof than the bottom floor of our home and when our electrician friend came out again, he discovered that I was right. A nest was found with 4 very young (naked and pink) birds in it. He - bless his heart - climbed up onto our very steep-pitched roof, cut open the vent and carefully removed the nest before installing a screen and re-attaching the vent. He placed the nest in a nearby tree and hoped that the Mother would continue to care for them there. For a little while, it seemed like she would. I saw her bringing food and, from the ground, could see 4 hilarious "little" (huge!) bright yellow mouths stretching out of the nest. Over the next 24 hours, though, her visits became fewer and fewer and I now haven't seen her in about 24 hours. I read somewhere that nestlings that young need to be fed every 10-15 minutes. The baby chirps have now stopped and there are no more yellow mouths stretching out to be fed. I know they have all died.

For some reason, I'm completely upset about it I know that things like this happen in nature all of the time - that's what I'm trying to tell my daughter, at least. I just wish I'd never seen the little buggers. Seeing them and their adorable, pitiful little selves just made them more "real" to me, I guess. My daughter told me this morning that she's glad I take care of her and her brother better than the birds' Mother took care of her babies. (Aww!)

I have to do some research on how I can prevent this from happening again. In addition to these 2 horrible incidents, we (every Spring) have a family of doves that try to make a nest in one of our patio ceiling fans. The nests are less than adequate and eggs end up falling out and smashing on the ground every year - yet they continue to return! I'm seriously considering purchasing some type of bird deterrent. This is all just too upsetting. What will keep birds at an arms length from the house? A scarecrow? Plastic owl?