Well, it's happened again. Okay, so I wasn't attacked per se, but a bird did startle me quite a bit today.
I was using my day to lay down new flooring in Jen's basement office. At some point before noon, I heard what sounded like feet scrabbling in an air duct. Worst case scenario, we've got a mouse (or god forbid, a squirrel) in the duct work. I guess it could've been some horrible, slobbering, duct dwelling monster set on devouring me, but since Stephen King doesn't live here, I figured I was relatively safe.
Upon hearing the noise, I followed it to where I thought it originated, and it turned out that whatever it was, was stuck in the furnace itself. I gathered my animal extraction equipment (oven mitts, garbage bags, and a bucket), and started to take off the main panel of the furnace.
As I did this, I could see what looked like claws poking out through the slats in the panel. I'll admit, it gave me some pause. After all, these are what this animal protects itself with, grabs food with, gouges eyes out with, whatever. I still didn't know what I was dealing with, but I charged ahead.
Moving the panel to open the furnace caused the animal to panic, so there was much rustling, and something else ended up poking out of the slats: feathers. Yes, one of those annoying black birds that eat all the food in our feeder, somehow managed to squeeze it's way past the vent cap on our chimney, and fell down a pipe into our furnace. I'm sure it was trying to find shelter from our winter weather, but that was probably warmer than he intended.
I was finally able to open the furnace and get a bag into position. The bird, having previously retreated up a small duct to get away from the noise I was making, lost it's purchase and fell into the bag. I removed said bag to the outdoors, laid it on the ground and pulled it away from the bird, who took off without a look back.
That oughta keep my karma straight for a couple days. Plus, our house won't stink like dead bird.
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4 comments:
Nice of you to save it! Those birds are called starlings.
Better you than me, buddy. I would've been in panic mode just like the bird. I bet the birds out at the feeder are talking about you now....the hero of the bird population!
Good for you! I would have screamed and called someone to come get the damn thing, or let the cats at it. No good karma for me!
Picture me, screaming like the girl that I am, in that scenario. Now, picture me waiting six hours until The General got home. That's what would have gone down in OCH. Remind me to tell you about the trapped mouse story sometime.
By the way, thank you for elevating my irrational fear of birds. Those beady eyes, the claws...*shudder*
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