White Crowned Sparrow and others in the backyard

[Joe]

A white crowned sparrow showed up today along with some cardinals, juncos, downies, chickadees and those damn squirrels.  I actually like squirrels, just not all over my feeders.  I'll post a pic later.

Joe

[Napper]

Hey Joe  :!:

You have squirrels? you must take precautions.. We have a wood stove (new in 2007)and last spring well after we shut it down for the season. Napper gets a

phone call from the boss saying there is a squirrel inside the woodstove. The cat is camped out in front of the glass and won't budge...

I get home and have the duty of removing Mr. Squirrel. After it finally decided to run out the back door I had a look inside and it damaged the fireproof seal

around the door with its claws..

A few weeks later it happened again with the same result.  

Mid May and it is time to Clean the chimney. I open the clean out at the base of the metal stack and what do I find.

Grass and lots of it. Mr. Squirrel had completely filled the 18 foot external chimney with grass from the top.. I removed the grass using my fibreglass chimney

sweep rods and then swept the chimney with a the brush attachment.. In July I had to do the same (remove grass).. I then proceeded to wire attach a metal

mesh  all around the cap..  Everyone should inspect their gas exhaust chimney, wood stove chimney on roof before the heating season starts  to prevent

fires or Carbon monoxide gas from entering your living areas.

I can't imagine what would have happened if we decided to have a fire with the chimney blocked.

Napper  :!:  :!:

[Halton Hills]

attach a metal mesh all around the cap

Just a word of caution........don't use any fine mesh or screen.

Use a fairly heavy guage stainless steel mesh with at least 3/4 inch squares

You would be amazed at how easily a finer mesh can become totally blocked with creosote.


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