Ever had this happen?

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begreen

Mooderator
Staff member
Hearth Supporter
Nov 18, 2005
106,384
South Puget Sound, WA

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  • [Hearth.com] Ever had this happen?
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YES!!

The single gal that lives across the street is a schoolteacher. She was grading papers at night and felt that she was being watched. After checking around the house she went back to grading papers sure she was alone.... Then an hour later she saw two BIG YELLOW EYES in the Fireplace!!! She was still pretty shookup when she called my wife.

The rescue was affected with wleding gloves... I understand the small owls are attacked on sight by any crows during the day. They fly into any open hole in any available tree so an uncapped chimney can look like a temporary hiding place.

ATB,
Mike P
 
Had a wood duck make a nest in the chimney when I was a kid.
That led to my first and hopefully only experience with a chimney fire.

Owls are COOL birds.
 
Never birds, but Squirrels...twice. Solution: Pellet gun and cutting branches that were near the house.
 
I've had 5 birds down the flue in the back house wood stove. The chimney doesn't have a metal grate or screen under the cap like the front does...always happens in the fall, never the spring. I guess that's indicative of the onset of winter. Rescued 4 of them no problems...the other wasn't so lucky...what's that cheech n chong movie, up in smoke? ;-)
 
Not with owls, but we used to get swallows in the fireplace when I was growing up.
And my strangest call I have received was the neighbors wife one night called me
to rescue her and their two daughters from a bat that had gotten in throught the fire one night when he was out of town.
I went over to find the three of them huddled under an umbrella, while the bat flew around the room.
 
i'll never forget the swarm of bees that infested mom and dads fireplace way back when. as a pre teen i was somewhat concerned, but not as concerned as my mother(freaking out). this just happened to be about the same time as "killer bees" started getting some press in the 70"s. i still have the mental picture of them covering the inside of the fireplace door glass and mom going crazy about the killer bees:)
 
A friend with a Federal cat woodstove has had starlings trapped in the upper portion of the stove. They have to take the top off and let the bird out into a bag, and then outside. One had apparently died in there, and they found it while cleaning. It had gone through several firings of the stove. He said the bird looked like "Han Solo frozen in carbonite". It had completely turned to carbon. He poked it with his finger and it turned to dust. Poof!
 
My favorite was the day the cat was raising hell and I followed him into the den. Centered above the insert half way up the brick hall was a bat hanging upside down attached to the bricks.

Put on a glove and tossed his butt out the door. The cat was incensed. I should have kept the bat and tossed the cat.
 
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