Just rescued a baby Blackbird from our chimney

hollydolly

hollydolly

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Location
London England
I could hear a lot of fluttering and dropping of debris in our chimney behind our fitted fire which is situated in our fireplace . I suspected a bird had got trapped in there even though our chimney on the roof is capped off, so I called my o/h to come and have a look

Hubs removed the fire from the fireplace , and shone a torch up there and could see a bird half way up the chimney but too far for him to reach. He left the fire out of it's fittings to give it some daylight in the hope it would come down and we could release it but instead it flew up further onto another ledge. out of reach....the space where it got in on the chimney on the roof is so tiny there was little chance of it finding it's way out the same way it came in.

About half an hour later we couldn't hear or see anything else so we thought perhaps it had managed to get out so he replaced the fire...but then I could hear more scrabbling around again...so we pulled the fire out again and this time there was the baby Blackbird sitting in the corner of the empty cavity where the fire had been..terrified and screeching it's head off. Hubs grabbed it very gently while it hollered and screamed with fright... and took it straight out the back and it flew off none the worse I hope.. for it's adventure. Hopefully it's learned to keep away from Chimneys *phew**
 

Yes we do too Annie..collared doves, pigeons, blackbirds, starling, thrushes etc..and the racket coming down the chimney flue is very loud sometimes..but I just felt that this was no ordinary flue echo, and the bird was trapped inside...so we had to get it out before it died of starvation.
 

We would have done the same. Really hate it when the birds fly into our windows. Sometimes they die but usually they are just knocked out and do recover.
 
But you missed an opportunity. All you needed was 19 more!!

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing—
Wasn't that a dainty dish
To set before the king?
 
We had a little bird inside our woodstove a month or so ago. Good thing we have kids in the house-they were the ones who noticed it was in there. Wes and I probably would have never noticed it til it was too late. Getting it outside was a bit tricky-it got loose in the house when he opened the door to the woodstove and flew up onto a high windowsill. He had to trap it in a plastic bowl and carry it outside lol.
 
1990, youngest daughter was 14, she found this "goober" of a baby bird in the back yard. Evidently, a storm had blown the nest out of a tree. We told her to toss it, that it would never live. No feathers... little movement... toss it!! She tried feeding it some bread and milk with a toothpick. Kept it in her room that night in a topping bowl. Still alive the next morning. More bread and milk with a toothpick.

When "Bird" finally began to grow some feathers, it was obiously a sparrow. "His eye is on the sparrow." Days turned into weeks into months. "Bird" moved to a garage sale cage and that became its home. When the cage needed cleaned, daughter would toss it into the garage. Once the cage was cleaned, she'd open the door and "Bird" would land on her shoulder and be put back into its cage.

Never had to cover the cage at night. When we all would head up to the bedrooms, we wouldn't hear a 'peep' out of Bird all night. The first time feet hit the floors in the morning, Bird would start singing. "Bird's" cage was in a foyer, just a few feet from the kitchen. Anytime someone was cooking in the kitchen, Bird would sing and sing and sing. Just a 'stupid' sparrow!!!! We had no idea of the life expectency of a sparrow. Couldn't let him loose. He'd land on someone's shoulder and be killed. Who would feed him his bread and milk? That's all he would eat.

"Bird" was a member of our family for 12 years. Our daughter had married, in the meantime, and Bird had moved with her to their home. The daughter and son-in-law had just signed papers to adopt a sibling set of three children when they found Bird in the bottom of his cage. She always said "The eye of the sparrow was on me, listening and being there, until he knew I had other responsibilities on the horizon." "Bird" still finds his way into family conversations from time to time.
 
Blessings to all who take the time and trouble to preserve the wild babies!
 

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