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Default Birds nests: cleaning out of roof

When do birds fly south for the winter?

I am renovating my rotten fascia boards and there is a birds nest in
one corner.
What is the best time to evict the birds?
I don't want the deaths of some young chicks on my conscience!

Bruce

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Mary Fisher
 
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When do birds fly south for the winter?

I am renovating my rotten fascia boards and there is a birds nest in
one corner.
What is the best time to evict the birds?


They'll leave as soon as the chicks can fly, I'd be surprised if there were
any still in there unless they're swifts. If they are swifts PLEASE let them
be, they're getting fewer and fewer. It won't be long before they go. The
adults won't continue to occupy the nest.

Also, make sure you leave access to the roof for next year if possible. One
of the easons for the reduction ofbirds is the lack of nesting sites because
of different ways of building houses.

I don't want the deaths of some young chicks on my conscience!


I hope you don't have that.

Mary

Bruce



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So starlings, sparrows etc. should have left by August? I thought they
stayed until Sept/Oct. Come to think of it, I haven't heard much
chirping recently.

Normally I wouldn't mind birds in the roof. But they do tend to leave
bird muck all over the brickwork where they go in and out...what's best
for cleaning this off?

Bruce

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Mary Fisher
 
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So starlings, sparrows etc. should have left by August?


Ours all have already flown the nest. Only the swifts are still there,
they're vey late in starting. In fact 'ours' use a nest evacuated by
sparrows - every year. Starlings are very early.

I thought they
stayed until Sept/Oct. Come to think of it, I haven't heard much
chirping recently.

Normally I wouldn't mind birds in the roof. But they do tend to leave
bird muck all over the brickwork where they go in and out...what's best
for cleaning this off?


Well, you don't have to look up :-)

A power washer works but it's a waste of water.You could get up a ladder
with a dry stiff brush. And a mask.

Mary

Bruce



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Mike Hibbert
 
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Mary Fisher wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

When do birds fly south for the winter?

I am renovating my rotten fascia boards and there is a birds nest in
one corner.
What is the best time to evict the birds?



They'll leave as soon as the chicks can fly, I'd be surprised if there were
any still in there unless they're swifts. If they are swifts PLEASE let them
be, they're getting fewer and fewer.


cor, not round out way they aren't! It's lovely to watch them on a
summer evening, bloody loads of them flying around!



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Lobster
 
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Mary Fisher wrote:
They'll leave as soon as the chicks can fly, I'd be surprised if there were
any still in there unless they're swifts. If they are swifts PLEASE let them
be, they're getting fewer and fewer. It won't be long before they go. The
adults won't continue to occupy the nest.


Funny that. I came home today at lunchtime to hear a hell of a racket
upstairs, and found a swift trapped up there! I think it can only have
come down through the ceiling hatch, which I happened to have left open
(although I didn't think there were any holes that big. We certainly
don't have any nests in the house.) Never seen a swift that close up
before TBH, and I had to find a picture to check that's definitely what
it was. Anyway, Mary, you'll be pleased to hear that Swiftie went
tearing out the bedroom window when I opened it, apparently none the
worse for the experience!

David
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Mary Fisher
 
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"Mike Hibbert" wrote in message
. uk...
Mary Fisher wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

When do birds fly south for the winter?

I am renovating my rotten fascia boards and there is a birds nest in
one corner.
What is the best time to evict the birds?



They'll leave as soon as the chicks can fly, I'd be surprised if there
were any still in there unless they're swifts. If they are swifts PLEASE
let them be, they're getting fewer and fewer.


cor, not round out way they aren't! It's lovely to watch them on a summer
evening, bloody loads of them flying around!


Tonight I counted twelve - I reckon some of the fledglings are out. We
haven't seen more than five at a time until today. The numbers are reducing
year on year which is why I want people to protect them.

The most wonderful thing about swifts is the noise - the sound of summer.
The second is the speed they fly at - cutting through the air ...

You know that they can't stand or walk - legs and feet too feeble, they
don't need them. But one year a young swift must have fallen out of the nest
and into our cavity wall. We rescued it, a teenage son held it in his hands.
There can't be many people who've held a swift. He didn't know what to do,
nor did I. I said, "Throw it into the air and see what happens, it has no
chance unless it can fly." He threw it into the air - and it went up and
up - magic! Now, every time he sees them flying, he remembers that he held
one in his hand. An enduring memory - it must be twenty years ago.

The other magical bird is the skylark. Once I watched one, unbelievingly,
while Spouse was flying a model on setaside land. I told him to watch this
thing going up and up, singing. "Keep watching, keep watching, " I
instructed, even when the bird was invisible, it was so high. Then suddenly
it dropped like a stone, straight down, accelerating at 32' per sec per sec,
until it pulled out of the fall at ground level. Spouse couldn't believe it
either, he wished he could pull an aircraft out of such a fall ...

Mary



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Mary Fisher
 
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"Lobster" wrote in message
...
Mary Fisher wrote:
They'll leave as soon as the chicks can fly, I'd be surprised if there
were any still in there unless they're swifts. If they are swifts PLEASE
let them be, they're getting fewer and fewer. It won't be long before
they go. The adults won't continue to occupy the nest.


Funny that. I came home today at lunchtime to hear a hell of a racket
upstairs, and found a swift trapped up there! I think it can only have
come down through the ceiling hatch, which I happened to have left open
(although I didn't think there were any holes that big. We certainly
don't have any nests in the house.) Never seen a swift that close up
before TBH, and I had to find a picture to check that's definitely what it
was. Anyway, Mary, you'll be pleased to hear that Swiftie went tearing
out the bedroom window when I opened it, apparently none the worse for the
experience!


I'm delighted!

Well done:-)

Mary

David



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