‘Blackbirds singing in the dead of night’ warbled Anne from under the covers. It was the second time in less than a month, September of course. We’d had another blackbird come down the chimney while we were asleep. Eventually, we had to call Dandenong pest control. I don’t like birds, but you can’t just leave one in the chimney to find it’s way out. Apparently they don’t possess upward flight ability and they just sit there and scream until you get them out.
‘It’s coming from the fireplace!’ Anne screamed, now from behind our bedroom door. “You need to find out who can get rid of birds in Frankston!”
Sure enough, I could hear frantic scratching and shrieking from the chimney. When I opened the fireplace door, a cloud of soot tumbled forward but no bird.
For some reason, a crazy number of starlings and blackbirds decided our roof was the best place around to raise their babies, and this meant constant chirruping and stink and bird fights and yep, birds becoming disoriented and ending up in our chimney.
You only had to look at the awning around our house to see where they were going in. Huge white streaks decorated the house in places. We often saw them going in, beaks chock full of twigs or worms. They had to go.
Once pest control had assessed our place, and the birds had been eradicated, we stopped smelling the awful baby bird stink. However a few short weeks after this, I noticed an army of tiny caramel coloured ants marching down a groove in the floorboards. White ants? Panicking, I got in contact with the pest control team again, we had the house check out against termites. We were lucky this time, but especially now that we know how bad it can get, we’ll be keeping on top of any unplanned visitors in our home.