Sunday, June 11, 2017

Woodstove Noises

        Got a call from a customer who was hearing noises in his wood stove. Now in the past I have taken gray, and flying squirrels, bats, and birds out of wood stoves. So I figured it had to be one of them. So I hop in my truck, and drive over to his house. Get there, and open the stove door a crack and don't see anything. Close it back up and hear a noise in the stove pipe coming off the back of the stove. Bang on the pipe a little, and open the door a crack again. There it is clinging to the back of the stove (see picture). Reach in slowly and carefully and grab it. Pull it out of the stove and walk out onto the deck to release it, figuring I'm done with this job, and let it go. It flies away with no problem. Just then I hear the wife say "I hear another one". Sure enough, there's another one in there! Open the door, and this time there's one hanging on the inside of the door, So I repeat the process, and this one flies away OK. Think that was the end of it? Nope! There was a THIRD one in there.  All three released with no problem. Chimney swifts build mud nests on the inside surfaces of chimneys. My guess is that this nest broke off the chimney and fell down into the wood stove pipe near the stove just as they were fledging (leaving the nets for good) and they couldn't get back up the chimney. These were probably just fledged. and got stuck in the stove. It had a happy ending for all concerned. Chimney swifts are declining in general over most of their range.

          Here is a link to CT DEEP's web page about them. 
CT DEEP/Chimney swifts

Swift on inside of wood stove



Swift in hand, outside, ready to be released.