Jackdaws in chimney

lisab279

Hi,
For the past few years I have had Jackdaws nest in my chimney they don’t pose and problems and the fire place is closed if so not given them much thought.
This year however I started working from home and my office is in the room with the blocked of chimney so I could hear the chicks calling for the parents and scratching around again not a big issue but I have started to panic that the nest falls and the chicks are trapped which would be awful to listen to particular as I couldn’t rescue them.
Should I get the chimney covered to stop them nesting again or leave them be and trust they know what they are doing? And do the parents stay in the nest all year as I have heard them today, it’s been quiet for weeks.

Brexiteer

Leave them be mate. Nesting places for birds are getting rarer as everyone is having new roofs and blocking up holes

lisab279

I don’t mind them. They can be a little noisy but then I am sure they would say the same about me 😂
I was more wondering if because my fireplace was blocked off I had a responsibility to cap the chimney. 

purplerallim

I have watched a nearby houses chimney nest of Jackdaws for four years now. Each year they come in spring nest, leave , return nest again sometimes and then hang around in autumn.  Adults and young popping in and out all summer/autumn.  I have even seen last years young help with the nest building in spring.😁

wild edges

I recently did a job where we had to evict some jackdaws. The ecologist specified some Schwegler No 5 owl boxes to be put up to replace the lost nesting sites. I guess any box suitable for tawny owls would do though.

Bijdezee

Had this happen in our old place. Sadly, for one reason or another a bird died in there and we only knew when there was increasingly loud buzzing. On opening up millions of flies flew out and maggots dropped every where. It was horrible. Took quite a lot of cleaning up. Our chimney is covered now. 

lisab279

There are another two houses in the street with jackdaws nesting in the chimney think I will just leave them and hope they are good nest builders and the nest doesn’t colla in the chimney as there would be no hope for the chicks as I would need to take a sledgehammer to the wall. Might buy a nest box but would only think they would use it if there previous nest wasn’t available?

Dovefromabove

Just a thought ... could you make a compressed balm of chicken wire and wedge it tightly into the chimney a couple of feet down from the top? 

 You’d have to get someone to go up a ladder to do it ... but it’d stop any unfortunate fledgling from dropping down the chimney and getting stuck behind a bricked up fireplace ... it can cost a lot to get one of those out, whether alive or .... not 🙄 

madpenguin

I was born at home and the 'birthing' room was all laid out for the happy event (me )
A couple of days before a jackdaw fell down the chimney and covered the whole room with soot!
Everything had to be washed and scrubbed again for my arrival.Mum says all the hard work probably speeded things on a bit!