I know, some of you think I have bats in my belfry (Granny waves at Ginny), but I think it's birds in the attic.
See that little hole under the eaves of the house (click the picture to enlarge)? I have no idea why it's there, but it's been there as long as we've lived here (22 years), and has never been a problem, so we've just ignored it.This spring I plugged the holes in our bird houses, as the sparrows that use them have become such pests in the garden. It didn't deter them, they just built nests in the arborvitae next to the garden shed, and have raised two families there this year. Lately I've seen a mama sparrow flying up to the roof next to the patio. She has spent a lot of time flying back and forth from my garden to that area of the roof. I wondered if she might have built a nest under the flashing between the house and patio roofs, but couldn't see any signs of one anywhere. This morning I was in the laundry room (the window in the above picture). The house was so quiet, as Mr. Granny and the dogs were still asleep, and no TVs were blaring. It was then I could hear little scratching sounds and a lot of baby chirp, chirp, chirping either in the wall behind the dryer or in the attic directly above my head.
Of course, we'll have to wait until we know the baby birds have flown before we can plug or put a screen over the hole. In the meantime, we'll just have to live with birds in the attic.
I suppose you noticed the ends of those beams have been cut off. Son John did that three weeks ago, and I have all the fascia boards pre-painted and waiting. It looks like it's not getting finished. There's no way I can lift that heavy Hardy Board into place to nail it up, and Mr. Granny can't help. It all needs to be ripped down to 6 1/2 inches from 8 inches anyway, and I haven't the saw that can do that. I guess I'll be dragging out the ladder and just painting the ends. It's too bad I already pre-painted the boards, as now they can't be returned to the store.
Ha ha, we have bats in our belfry. if I don't cover our car in the barn each night I have bats poo all over it!!!! Diane
ReplyDeleteWe already knew that you had bats or birds in your belfry! I'm sure that your son will get over there and get the Hardy Board up sooner or later....it may be later though. You know how sons can be!
ReplyDeleteIt's so funny how birds find a little hole and get into it to make a nest. We had a little hole in our siding a few years ago and some bees from a neighbor's hive decided to move their hive into our siding. The hole went right into between the ceiling in our basement and the floor of the dining room. We heard a funny buzzing sound and discovered the bees. A nice beekeeper came and took the bees to their new home.
ReplyDeleteDiane, I hope you're saving that bat poo! Guano is one of the best garden fertilizers.
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Robin, I'm hoping he reads my blog today ;-)
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Brenda, yellowjackets found a tiny opening in the soffits of the garden shed. I have no idea how many nests they've made in there!
Those sparrows are just paying you back for taking away their house. Now they have taken yours.
ReplyDeleteHi Granny! We had squirrels in our attic for the longest time and their scratching would drive me bonkers (especially at night)! My son consistantly had nightmares that zombies or some other such creature was trying to get him. We finally had to resort to professionals to get rid of them - SO glad that solved our problem.. Hopefully you won't have to resort to that with your baby birdies!
ReplyDeleteBTW - Happy Anniversary!!
Daphne, they were already driving me nuts with the constant chirping that echoed loudly through the garden shed! I don't think they had a nest in that tree, I think they had an entire commune!
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Caffienated Mom, DAMN!! I just took your blog off my blog roll, since it's been a year. Yes, a YEAR! TOMORROW! When your comment came to my email in box, I rushed back to your blog, hoping and praying you were back. Sob....you aren't. I mean you're here, but you're not there! You're in my reader though, so if you ever want to blog again.....just DO IT!!!
I had barn swallows go down the fireplace chimney and fly all over the house. We finally caught them in a fish net.
I had a bird fly down the chimney once in NJ , it scared him and me! I was able to open the front door and he flew out..I'd hate to have them hurt themselves in my home.
ReplyDeleteNo bats, but we have swallows. They nest in the holes in the attic wall every year. I love them! They eat mosquitoes. One year we plugged up the holes and we hardly saw any of them and the bugs ate us alive! Never again! I'd like to have bats too... they also eat mosquitoes (I've asked FitzGyver to build us a bat house)... can you tell I hate mosquitoes?
ReplyDeleteHey, Deb...do you hate mosquitoes? LOL, we live in a "mosquito district", where they spray for them. With West Nile Virus showing up in the area, and our proximity to irrigated land and canals, they've been really good about controlling them. I can't remember the last time we had mosquitoes around here. The spray might eventually kill us, but at least we won't die from WNV!
ReplyDeleteWe just got rid of the bats in the belfry. I don't know where they went - one day they were there and the next gone.
ReplyDeleteRibbit, I'd celebrate the day they left ;-)
ReplyDeleteStraight across, I'll trade you some of our basement and patio bats for your belfry birds...hmmm...actually, other than freaking my wife out the bats do more good than harm unlike your berry eating birds...the trades off, you can keep the birds.:)
ReplyDeleteBirds in the attic:)...I remember a book from my childhood called "Owles In The Attic" by Farley Mowat. I'm rambling now so I had better go and help the good wife finish dinner before I get in trouble.
Mr. H., when my kids were young, their favorite book was A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. When I was a child, I liked to sleep in my Grandmother's attic. She had a thick featherbed, and the bed was situated in front of the window, high up in the trees. I would pretend I was on my cloud, flying through the air.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, they raise their families so quickly. Don't know about you, but I'm not crazy about sparrows.
ReplyDeleteAt my old house, I had bees that got into the walls and there were thousands of them. We had to have a beekeeper come and get them out .
My son, who was 8 at the time, came down right after we had the closing on the house and said the walls upstairs were "humming". It was unreal-the noise.
Hopefully they don't keep you up at night, Gran. I visit a house once where squirrels lived in the attic. It's as if they were stomping their feet on purpose.
ReplyDeleteThomas, they don't bother me at night. Maybe they're sleeping too! We did get field mice in our walls once, when the city was digging for sewer lines and disrupted their habitat. I could hear them moving through the dining room wall, then through the kitchen wall, then down the hallway, then through the bedroom. A few got in the house and were immediately caught in traps (not havaheart, either!), but some ended up in the garage. This was just as we were leaving for AZ for the winter, and I didn't know we hadn't caught them all. They met their maker when they fell into the open chest freezer and couldn't get back out. We came home to 3 mouse skeletons. That was our one and only mouse invasion, thank heavens!
ReplyDeleteLol, never a dull moment for you is there?
ReplyDeleteKelly, actually there are a lot of dull moments in my life. That's why I garden and blog....keeps me awake!
ReplyDeleteThose sparrows are just paying you back for taking away their house. Now they have taken yours..
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing..
Flowering Trees, that's probably true!
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