Back in the mid 1980's, I built, or had built, a log house on my lot in Pelham. On the south end of the house, in the den / living room I got a local man who did such things to build a brick fireplace. My dad did not think much of having a fireplace installed. He said it just looked like a waste of money for something I would never use. I told him I didn't think a log house would look right without a fireplace. He didn't think much of that either.
Within a year or two after the house was built, chimney swifts started nesting in the chimney each spring. I would not have minded so much, but when the little birds hatched out they began to raise hell to be feed and that went on for several weeks. At odd times, you would hear the flutter of wings as one of the parent birds entered the chimney and then all manner of cheeping and chirping. It got to be a bit unnerving at times. After one or two seasons, I had had enough. I was up on the roof anyway checking something so I cut a piece of hardware cloth a bit bigger than the chimney tile opening, folded the edges back and pushed it down into the chimney. That put a stop to the chimney swifts for a long time. Then a few years ago, I was out in the yard doing something and found the piece of hardware cloth laying next to the base of the chimney. I am not sure what happened to extract it from the chimney, but I think it might have been about the time I had my first raccoon infestation in the attic. Those little buggers will tear up or tear into anything. Maybe they were exploring the chimney as a possible entrance to the house.
The next year or maybe the one after that, the chimney swifts returned. That has been 4 or 5 years ago and every year they have been back and raised a family and one year I think they may have even raised two families. Every year I say, when those sobs get out of there, I am gonna climb up on that roof and put hardware cloth back in that chimney, but then when they leave everything is quiet and I look up at that steep roof and think maybe climbing up there is really not such a good idea.
I never have gotten around to re-installing the hardware cloth so this year when spring rolled around, I was prepared for the fluttering of wings followed in a few days by the chirping and cheeping. Once I even thought I heard some wings flapping, can't be sure, but that was the only time and the chirping and cheeping never started. I don't know what happened, but for some reason it appears that the chimney swifts did not build in my chimney this year.
You know it is sort of strange, but in an odd way, I kind of miss them.
