Bird in basement, through boiler?

JBee_3

I saw one at COSTCO today,flying around don't think it had a membership card.. I saw a dead one in my flue a few years ago.

David Efflandt_2

Can bird get in through boiler?

When I went down to the basement last night I sensed something odd (spooky), like something was moving. All of a sudden a medium size grayish bird flew by me and back to the dark end. I left a pan of water in the washtub in case it got thirsty and contemplated how to deal with it in the morning.

What I cannot figure out is how it got into the basement. A bird did build a nest in my dryer vent one spring when the flapper stuck open, but flapper is working and no holes in vent hose or pipe. I have never had any critters larger than Boxelder bugs and Yellow Jackets get in before.

Since temperatures have been in single digits lately I wonder if a bird was sitting on the warm chimney and fell in due to fumes. I could not find any disturbance in the dust on top of my water heater around its vent hood.

Is it possible that it got in through my gas steam boiler? I imagine if it crawled in through the 6" vent and was sitting on the motorized vent damper when it opened, it could have dropped down and flown out the front of the boiler.

My plan for the morning was to open the back door wide, open the basement door and try to flush it out. But as soon as I entered the basement and turned on another light, out the door it went. Although, it may have had second thoughts when it hit the 10 degree air.

Derheatmeister

That's a Petty Cool story. seen dead or crusty ones before,Anything is possible!

realolman

had bats

come in my fireplace one night. twice. Something makes me think it was the same one. It was the biggest bat I've ever seen... although I imagine they look bigger in your living room than outside.

We're sitting there watching tv and my wife says there's a mouse in the fireplace and sure enough there it was crawling up the screen. When it got to the top it takes off and flies around the room AAAAAHHH!

Well, we got it out, and about an hour and a half later... exactly the same thing... up the screen around the room. I have a pretty good fire place... cast iron damper and intake air... I don't know where they / it came from.

Jim Bennett

A friend......

once found 53 dead starlings in his unused wood burning stove. The bird cap apparently slipped down.

If the stove had been open they would have been in the house.

Unknown

The odor...

Got a call once, foul odor coming from the fireplace. Turns out the fireplace had been abandoned and the damper wired shut years ago. Went down to the basement to check the inspection port and out pops a rotten dead squirrel carcass,,, and the odor. So I tells the lady she needs a chimney guy to clean out the chimney. I heard they found something like 3-4 feet's worth of dead squirrels packed in the chimney. They was gettin' in but they wasn't gettin' back out.

I'm sure the bird was just verifying your boiler tweetment plan.

joe lambert_2

Just cleaned out a boiler in a house that was winterized for two years. There was three dead birds inside the boiler that that came down the chimney and got stuck inside the boiler. One of the birds heads was wedged into the damper.

Unknown

They like to

perch at the top(masonry), where it`s warmer,,then get "simple" from the CO fumes and fall-in. A lined chimney with the proper cap usually stops this.

jim s_2

Happened to Me

several times,starling fell down the chimney,couldn`t get out,found it`s way out the boiler flue and flew around the basement driving my kitties nuts.

I keep saying I`ll put a cap on the chimney but it never seems to happen.

lee_7

I got that beat. I was remodeling a front porch for a customer and removed the 2 columns hold up porch> And to my surprise, they were full, and i mean FULL of dead starlings. There had to be 200 in each 8" column. There was a small opening on top of each column and they just kept falling in. The smell was disgusting. Clean up was no fun either

realolman

that's really something.

why would they do that kinda stuff, I wonder?

I live in an old house that's been remodeled several times and someone built an interior wall by attatching wall studs to the roof rafters with no 2 x 4 on top.

I took the wall out and there was about a 5 gal bucket full of dead flying squirrels in between 2 of the studs. skeletons on the bottom. fresher as they went up.

Piece of romex in there with the insulation completely chewed off. Why it didn't short out is beyond me. The wall was covered in cheap 1/8 " paneling, but they chewed on the 2 x 4 s ... softer I guess.

I'da thought a squirrel coulda got outta there, but apparently not. Made me sick fer the poor critters.