Rooks!

[harveydales]

I thought these birds were supposed to be particularly intelligent. We have one pair who are determined to nest in our chimney despite the fact that we have a dome shaped metal grid securely fixed in the chimney cowl. The pair have been trying to remove the grid and they "post" huge numbers of sticks through the grid every day. This is what I'm greeted with in the morning:



Will they ever give up?

[Tynedale]

Made me laugh!
Light the fire with them

[colmworthdales]

Probably jackdaws - not rooks! Rooks are colony nesters at the tops of tall trees. Jackdaws are renowned chimney nesters - so good luck in stopping them!

[cadeby]

Smoke them out Or enjoy the babies and the poo

[valerie n scout]

Oh Pam, I did make me smile it first, silly birds x ps I love your fireplace

[zeldalithgow]

Now that did make me laugh out loud, I agree light a fire and keep it going or put a chimney balloon in then clear it all out after the babies have fledged

www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=chimney+balloon&tag=mh0a9-21&index=garden&hvadid=2978660621&ref=pd_sl_4xmv12gnjv_ee

[Fi]

brilliant! that made me chuckle.

No advice tho, sadly!

[jaycee]

Lol Pam. We have a basket on top of our chimney, is that what you have? On the plus side if it's a chimney you use the jackdaws are saving you a job fetching kindling in

[benjismum]

lol, that's brill, they are hard working birds, if not particularly bright ones

[zeldalithgow]

Can you get up and put some wire mesh round the cowl to prevent them posting the twigs down the chimney , the trouble with jackdaws is they keep dropping the twigs until they start to stick in the chimney so they canmake their next on the twig platform, we had a chimney stuffed full of sticks it took some work to get it clear

[Debbie]

Yikes! That's not fun at all. I'd say keep a fire lit until they give up and move to a different chimney.

We had a terrible fight with the starlings in Missouri and recently had to punch two holes in a wall to free one that had gotten in under the eaves it made a big mess of some very fine ventilation hardware cloth just to get lost in the wall. Sometimes these birds are really daft.

[harveydales]

We've got a dome shaped wire mesh cap on the chimney so they can't actually make a nest. They spend ages popping twigs through the mesh though, hence the mess in our dining room! You re right, they must be Jackdaws, not Rooks. I said Rooks because our garden is full of Rooks but I've read Rooks tolerate Jackdaws mixing with them. Anyway, there won't be any fledglings because they can't build a nest but I'm starting to feel rather sorry for them and part of me wants to go up and remove the mesh!

[tomasnrichy]

Interesting thread Pam , cannot give anymore advice , think it will be jackdaws like valerie love the fire place , I would leave , no need to set your fire each day cool lol , good luck