The Birds....

So, a few weeks ago, Mike and I both noticed there was chunks of shingles on the patio outside our door. We couldn't figure out why until we saw bird poop and realized that the birds were making a nest, but we didn't know where. Suddenly however, our dining room was filled the highly irritating sound of baby birds chirping, LOUDLY ALL DAY, and we realized they had gotten into our attic. Mike was more than a little annoyed since he had installed wire mesh around the inside of the attic to prevent such break-ins from occuring.



Needless to say, the chirping birds were ready to drive me out of my mind and needed to find a new home. I called our city wildlife office (the same ones that laughed at me when I asked if they would remove the large family of racoons from our storm drain) and asked what to do. I learned that it is against the law to kill nesting birds, but that because they were in our home, we were in a gray area. Lucky for the birds, we weren't interested in killing them, we were just interested in helping them relocate. After a really stupid conversation with the girl on the other end of the phone, who wanted me to build a ledge on the side of my house to house the nest, Mike went into the attic to remove the nest and hopefully encourage the birds to find a new home.

Here is the location of entry....

and one of the bird parents.

So, Mike gets into the attic, finds an EMPTY nest, and no birds. He passes the nest to me, which I quickly relocate to the patio, in case the birds are looking for it, but I can still hear the birds in the attic. Mike is insisting there are no birds up there and comes down. After a few minutes of hearing them again for himself, he goes back into the attic to search again. Seconds later, I hear a scream and Mike swearing. It seems that the little birds were hiding under the insulation, running around, which startled Mike upon moving the insulation. The birds, upon seeing Mike and being screamed at, jump into the wall between the stucco and the plaster! Now I can hear the birds in the WALL, meaning they are louder than ever.

Okay, so another trip to the attic ensues to try and offer the birds a ladder to get out of the wall and then we give up trying to get the birds out. Short of cutting a large hole in our dining room wall, there is really nothing left to do. For the next 2 days we continued to hear baby and mama birds chirping away in the walls and attic and then it was quiet. We are hoping the birds moved out but we can't be sure.