Bats in my belfry...

...er, perhaps more correctly, the title of this post should be starlings in my dryer vent.

When Dear BF and I first moved into this house a little over a year ago, we kept hearing weird scratching noises, but never figured out what it was. A few weeks ago, it started up again. Dear BF went outside the other day and caught a glimpse of a black bird entering our dryer vent. I had put it off for awhile, but finally tonight, we decided to investigate more closely and see what was happening in there.

We're damn lucky we didn't burn our house down. The extent of the nest and nesting materials in our dryer vent was unbelievable. I need to back up a bit and say that when Dear BF called me to tell me he found out what the noise was, I called the Audubon society. At the time, we didn't realize the bird was in our dryer vent, we just knew she was holed up somewhere in our home. So, I basically didn't have a lot to go on when I called Audubon. The gal told me it's illegal to disturb nesting birds, but she had asked me before that which hole the bird was in, so that makes me think that there's some piece of the "law" that says that if it's between you or the bird, the bird's gotta go. Not to mention that if a fire had started in the dryer vent, the bird and her offspring wouldn't have made it anyway.

So, anyway, here I am, up on a ladder with various implements (our tools of choice ended up being a screwdriver, flashlight, super long tongs, then later, some metal piece of Dear BF's weight bench and finally, a shop vac.) I was able to get all the outer pieces out with the screwdriver and the tongs. I thought at that point that I was almost done. Oh...no... Next came the actual nest, with four beautiful light blue eggs in it. I was able to get it out in one piece. This was the same time I became guilt stricken with what I was doing. Dear BF was not so upset by the situation. He kept giving me these "Really?" looks. So, here, I am, holding this perfect little nest. It's still warm from mom. But, what am I to do with it? If I set it on the ground, our dogs will gladly see it as a snack and I can't put it back and wait for the damn things to hatch! I happen to know that there are scrub jays who nest in the arborvitaes in the back yard, so I have Dear BF move the ladder so I can try to find a suitable spot beyond the fence. I was trying to set the nest in the arborvitaes, but they don't exactly have flat spots. I dropped one of the eggs while trying to find a safe place for the nest. Gawd, did I feel terrible. Then, I finally settled on setting the nest on top of a fence post-it seemed the safest place at the time.

That being done, I went back to find out how much was left in the dryer vent. Bad news-the vent was completely stuffed with dry grass. Enter the long metal piece. I was able to get a lot out with that and my gloved hands, but then it was time for the shop vac. We used every attachment I have for it and were able to clean out most of it. Shortly after I set the nest on the fence post, our resident scrub jay took an interest in it. Dear BF pointed it out to me and says, "What do you think he's going to do?" Well, he (she?) hopped right up to it and promptly took one of the remaining three eggs and took off with it. Shortly afterward, she was back. I saw her take the second egg and put it in the neighbor's yard. Then, she placed a few leaves on top of it. Was she hiding it for later or trying to protect it? Finally, she came back for the third egg. I felt bad, but I also felt I had done what I could, given the situation.

We got most of the grass out of the vent, but it was getting dark and we weren't able to fit the shop vac tube into the vent much farther, so we called it a night. We plan to go buy more pieces for the shop vac tomorrow and try to get the rest of the grass out. Meanwhile, we covered the hole and put up our trusty fake owl right next to it. Are starlings afraid of owls? I'm not sure, but it's not hurting anything to have him up there.

After doing a bit of research, I'm about 98% sure it was a starling in our vent and that as cute and anthropomorphic as I might like for it to be, the scrub jay was, if anything, hiding the eggs for later. Oh yeah, and the broken egg? It was pretty amazing. I could see the neck of the baby and it's little wing. I also saw yolk. What an interesting (and in some ways sad) experience.