Mysterious claw emerging from a wall

[Deb London]

The claw of this bird's leg was discovered poking out through a gap in a bricked-up chimney. Can anyone hazard a guess as to what it might have belonged to? The OH is really freaked out by this discovery.





Thanks.

[Dogghound]

Im guessing jackdow

[Deb London]

Thanks D. That was quick!

If anyone knows any folklore to do with the Jackdaw, please post, the gorier the better.

[actionfinch]

thats scary.... i found a dead wood pigeon behind our fireplace once , i wasnt into birdwatching like i am now.

[Farplace]

Yes Jackdaw would be my best guess too.

[RKB]

Definitely Jackdaw. You can work out that the tarsus length is just over 40 mm, which is spot on for that species. Starling would be about 10 mm less, and they are the two passerine species that are likely to get stuck in a chimney.

[Kayleigh]

OMG how awful..poor thing..

[Gatekeeper]

When I was about 16, a racing pigeon came down our chimney, whilst my parents were on holiday. We had a gas fire fitted in our lounge, so I couldn't get to the pigeon in order to release it, as this would have involved disconnecting the fire and damaging the stone fireplace. I could however see the pigeon through a small hole. It must have sustained injury, as it was dead by the next morning.

Two weeks later, my parents returned from holiday and my father removed the corpse of the pigeon, piece-meal, through the hole. Some time after that I was in my bedroom, when a large blue-bottle came in from the landing. I didn't think much of it, but then another, and another appeared. I went out onto the landing to find another 6 or so, plus a few were visible in another bedroom.

Making my way downstairs, I found 20 or so in the hall with more in the kitchen. But I was somewhat perturbed by the very evident buzzing noise that was apparent from behind the lounge door. The only thing I can compare to the scene (when I opened the door), was one of those wildlife films when something scares a huge flock of birds into flight. As I opened the door, hundreds of flies took to the air to join the hundreds of flies that were already there .

Just at that moment my mother came home from work. "Don't go in the lounge!", I said. "Why, what have you done??", was her reply. Barging past me, she opened the lounge door. I never dreamed that my mother was capable of screaming so loudly After my mother had locked herself into a flyless room, I opened all the windows and herded the flies outside. I then treated the room with fly-spray. In a matter of hours all was quiet except for the feeble buzz of a few dying flies.

The fly maggots must have devoured what they needed of the pigeon and crawled into the chimney brickwork to pupate. Unfortunately we went through the whole process a week later, as the flies had obviously laid a second batch.

[Meta menardi]

Many years ago ( over 60) my parents were in an old house that had not been used for some time. It had an open fire, with no throat plate, so effectively an open chimney. It being a cold night, they lit a fair sized fire and made a bed on the floor in front of it. Just before they went to bed, there was a sudden rush down the chimney of burning debris, which came halfway across the floor and burnt their bedding. Jackdaws had nested in the summer and then left, leaving 5 wheel-barrows full of debris in the chimneys.

We were a little wiser than that some years later, but forgot our bedding and slept the night on cocoa matting under a rag rug on a slate floor. Didn't want to cycle the 35 miles back, at the age of 19 love does keep you warm.

I agree, this is almost certainly one of those cheeky jackdaws. The will rip their way into a chimney through wire netting, and they just chuck stuff down the chimney till it is full, then nest.

[Jim Ford]

Read:

'The Black Cat' - Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe

You'll like it!

Jim