Birds in the Belfry

Crows rock. The first time my mother called me to come and see why there was a noise in her chimney, we were so careful. First, we made a tunnel of sheets from the fireplace to the door to the deck. Then, I opened the flue. The bird flew out, straight through the tunnel of sheets to the door, and out the door, perfect execution of plan. We relaxed, dropped the sheets, and then the MOTHER crow flew out, up to the second story window (my mother has a vaulted ceiling) into the window SMACK leaving a perfect soot crow print on the window, fell to the floor, shook herself off, and flew out through the door.

I was so impressed that the mother crow had gone down the chimney after her baby and have had an increased respect for crows ever since.

And here's the thing about crows...they talk to each other; in nine years, she has never had another crow in her chimney. However.

Recently she called...there was a bird in her chimney, actually, in her fireplace...she and my daughter had both seen it hopping around in there. I went over, and no bird. I finally opened the glass doors and then the mesh screen, and no bird. There were, however, several bird skeletons, birds who were not lucky enough to be heard.

Mom did say that at one point she had closed the flue so it would be easier to get the bird out of the fireplace...I opened the flue and out the bird flew! (I'm sorry). We had been so interested in the skeletons we had completely forgotten about the tunnel of sheets, but it was a very small bird and it let me pick it up (I have a bird thing;totally unrelated story) and take it outside.





So, back to the chimney full of bird skeletons....there were only four, if you don't count the dehydrated body. Apparently wrens don't talk amongst themselves like crows do. There was a glass door as well as a metal mesh screen...my mother travels a lot...and here's the thing...bird skeletons are extremely cool. There is no doubt in my mind that birds are dinosaurs.

We kept the complete skeletons and preserved them in miracle water.