Little bird, little bird, little bird What do you hear?...

When I got home from work, the kid next door who lives in the attic, talked to me and told me I better check my attic again, because he knows I have a bird up there.  He chased one back over to my side, and then stuffed the hole full of something so he knows it there.

So when I got inside, I went up to the attic.  As a refresher for you all, my attic is divided into three parts.  The middle part, where the stairs come into, has been made into a room, with paneling and carpeting and all that stuff.  That's where I have all my things stored.  The front and back are regular attics: exposed beams, insulation, bare wooden floors etc.  And it was in the back part that a few weeks ago that I found a dead bird. 

So first I checked the front and again found nothing unusual.  Then I went to the back part.  I didn't see any birds, but I saw quite a few marks of bird shit.  So obviously, they were there.  I came back down and called mom and we talked about it.  She said she'd come down sometime over the weekend and we'd get up there in old clothes with flashlights and see what we could find.

So I took a half hour walk (yay!) and I wasn't home any more than ten minutes before she knocked at the back door.  She brought down some photos albums she wanted me to have and while she was here, we trudged up to the attic.  We went to the front and saw nothing, and the middle was clear as well. 

When she opened the door to the back part, she quickly closed it and looked around at me and whispered, "OH!  There's a bird in there NOW!  Next to the window!"  She pulled the door open a bit and I looked in too and saw it.  The bird was flying against the window, trying to get outside.  She shut the door again and I asked her, "What are we gonna do with it?"

Without missing a beat, she said, "I'll go in an stun it and then we can get it out."  And she flew through the door before I could even finsh saying, "WHAT?"  Her response, over her shoulder was, "Keep the door closed, don't let it out."

Having just watching a good portion of Hitchcock's The Birds not too terribly long ago, I was completely visualizing what was going to happen to us in there, and I was not too keen to go in there.  I'm not good with small animals flying around my head in confined spaces, so while she was in there, I kept the door open only a crack just so I could see what was going on.

And I simply stood there and shook my head.  As the bird fluttered like crazy bouncing into and against the window, mom found, laying on the floorm  a round rod like what would be a holder for a blind over a window.  She used that to hit the bird, or try to.  She said, "Oh, I'm gonna break the window!" which thankfully she didnt.  She did succeed in hitting it, knocking it to the floor.  From safely behind the door, I asked her, "What are you doing?"  Swinging the rod again, she said, "I'm trying to knock it out."

Then, she kinda screamed a little, cause the bird took to the air. She brandished the rod in front of her, I guess hoping to use it ward the bird off, but it simply flew right past her.  She saw where it went.  And back near the house's edge, we shined the flashlight (with the bird gone, it was safe for me to enter) and saw possibly a nest in the broken floorboards, but definitely the way the birds were getting in.

Having survived the whole bird experience, we left the attic.  Now we're gonna try to find a reputable carpenter in town to fix that area up (chasing the birds away first hopefully) and ensure they dont get back in.  But I think mom might have a second career as a bird exterminator in the near future.

POLT