Strange Starling Experience

[Ann2]

I arrived home (from an afternoon's window shopping for laptops) to a loud squawking coming from an air vent in the front wall of my house. There was already an audience of cats, the neighbours' one in the front garden and my own cats in the living room, with their faces pressed against each side of the air vent.

My friend who was with me at the time, reasoned that the slats in the air vent were too narrow to have allowed a bird to nest inside, so the bird (a youngster) must have fallen from a nest in the eaves of the house, down into the wall cavity.

I armed my friend with hammer and chisel (that's what male friends come in handy for) and he had to chisel the cement from round the vent in order to remove it and release the bird.

It turned out to be a baby starling which I then had to coax out of the wall cavity. I was prepared for the parent birds creating a fuss but the whole neighbourhood starling population came out in force to scold and attack me. It was like a horror film!

I was intending to place the baby starling somewhere out of the reach of cats, so the parent birds could continue to feed it till it was able to fly, but without so much as a thank you, it vanished. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed for a happy ending.

Ann

[Hez]

Well there's gratitude for you! Bet you're still glad you rescued the little fellow though.

[Vixen]

how feathered was the baby??

[Ann2]

The starling was almost fully feathered but still not quite able to fly. I tried to put it on top of my camper van in the driveway (out the way of the local cats but as close to it's original nest as possible) but it kept trying to fly off.

It vanished while I was looking for a suitable nestlike container to house it in (I was hoping that it wouldn't be able to jump out of something with fairly high sides).

I was pleased that I was able to rescue it as it wouldn't have stood a chance, trapped in the wall cavity but I'm not sure that it stands a much better chance now in my front garden.


Ann

P.S. Anyone good at cementing air vents back?

[dbozkurt]

A grown up starling got caught in the cooker vent hob, came in from outside, first I heard was the pit a patter of fit on the vent. Good job I didn't put it on. Got it out without use of hammer, hope you get your vent back!

Debs