Birds nesting in roof problem

DO0GLE · 06-04-2007 08:34AM #1

I have a bird (I think a Starling) getting in under my slates and nesting over the felt. Its making loads of noise and I'm sure it will get alot worse if I let it continue and its eggs hatch. I can't get at it from the outside as the side of my house is too narrow to fit a ladder, so I thinking of approaching it from the attic which would mean removing some of the felt.
My question is could removing or tearing away some of the felt cause further problems down the line? Can anyone come up with a solution for me??

10-10-20 · 06-04-2007 01:38PM

Hmmm... When birds are setting up nest, they like to choose a place that is quiet. I have a bird box in a tree looking at my house, and I had some tits start to build a nest in it up until I used my angle-grinder to trim some concrete slabs in the back last week. The've since abandoned the box!
Maybe some nine-inch-nails or other such chewing-gum-for-the-ears would encourage them to move along?

Otherwise, cutting into the felt will require that it's sealed again. I don't know what tape you could use - but I'm sure there is some for repairing such damage.

JMSE · 06-04-2007 09:23PM

Damage the felt? :eek:

Go to your hardware and buy a square metre of chicken wire, cut a strip about 12"x3" and stuff it into the hole, no more filthy starlings, then spend another hour stuffing all the other holes they'll defer to

Bradidup · 06-04-2007 10:56PM

I have a problemb with a magpies outside my bedroom window in the gutter, im afraid to disturb them. almost sure its a nest. very noisy, just wondering how long dose it take before their young will fly away?

yankinlk · 07-04-2007 06:13AM

ive got birds starting to make a nest as well - but i didnt want to close the hole with the birds inside so - i was going to try the blag bag trick. attach a black plastic bag to the area you want to scare the birds from. Let the bags hang down and blow in the wind. The birds will think its a crow that got there before them.

DO0GLE · 07-04-2007 08:10AM

JMSE wrote:

Damage the felt? :eek:

Go to your hardware and buy a square metre of chicken wire, cut a strip about 12"x3" and stuff it into the hole, no more filthy starlings, then spend another hour stuffing all the other holes they'll defer to

I have to cut the felt to get to where they are getting in. I can't get to the roof from the outside. Was thinking of cutting a square metre of felt, filling in the hole with expanding foam, chicken wire etc and then patching up the felt with denzo tape

looksee · 07-04-2007 04:29PM

We had starlings in the corner of the roof for years. They were a bit noisy at this time of year but once the chicks were gone that was it till the following year. I wanted to get rid of them but couldn't get at them. We have a cat who's sole interest in life was getting into the loft as he usually caught one of them, but there was always a replacement bird, and some of the caught ones were left to moulder in bits of the attic we couldn't get into!

Eventually the roof had to be repaired for entirely different reasons and the builders cleared it out and made it inaccessible. When the starlings came back they sat on the corner of the guttering and complained loud and long about the disappearance of their tenement. Two years later they still hang about but today I saw two of them disappearing down a chimney of a nearby house. Think I might have to get a bird grid on our chimney...

JMSE · 07-04-2007 11:15PM

doogle i think these are your choices...either you cut felt or you pay for access from the outside i.e. hire a scaffold or even better an aluminium tower.

Imagine how much it would be to hire roofers to come and patch a leaking hole in the felt (the one you cut).

You say its too narrow to put up a ladder at the side of your house. How bout you get two big lads to hold the ladder either side while you go up, where can it go, it cant go back anyway. Get both of them to plant one foot in tight to the base of the ladder so it cant shift sideways, then send someone you dont like up to do the job :-) I remember picking plums years ago as a kid like this

Wertz · 09-04-2007 04:39PM

It might not seem like it but starlings are a species in decline in Eurpoe. They only nest and brood/rear for about 5 weeks and apart from noise at feeding times aren't going to pose much of a nuisance and are even less likely to pose any sort of health treat to you or your family....so why not just leave them to get on with it?
People are far too quick to recommend killing the birds, filling the holes etc...a little more thought for the nature that has to live and adapt to the surroundings man has decided to alter around them wouldn't go amiss.

Sonnenblumen · 09-04-2007 05:23PM

Wertz wrote:

It might not seem like it but starlings are a species in decline in Eurpoe. They only nest and brood/rear for about 5 weeks and apart from noise at feeding times aren't going to pose much of a nuisance and are even less likely to pose any sort of health treat to you or your family....so why not just leave them to get on with it?
People are far too quick to recommend killing the birds, filling the holes etc...a little more thought for the nature that has to live and adapt to the surroundings man has decided to alter around them wouldn't go amiss.

Agree Wetz, it's a shame to interfere with birds nesting. I would have hoped that most people will be more tolerant if not excited about birds nesting in roof area etc. I mean they're hardly going to cause any damage but to remove them runs the risk of accelerating their demise. Might be some don't care but I think the environment would be an awful lot poorer with fewer birds.

BTW birds including marauding magpies rely on insects for a significant degree of their food. Kill the birds and find out the consequences!!

crosstownk · 09-04-2007 08:18PM

Personally, I'd leave them - let them breed and at end of the season then address the problem. The worst they will do is cause a bit of noise for a while, otherwise they will cause no harm.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 10-04-2007 09:33AM

Bradidup wrote:

I have a problemb with a magpies outside my bedroom window in the gutter, im afraid to disturb them. almost sure its a nest. very noisy, just wondering how long dose it take before their young will fly away?

Magpies do not nest in gutters.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 10-04-2007 09:37AM

BTW: It is illegal under the Countryside Act to knowingly disturb nesting birds of any kind. The best course of action is to let this years nesting continue and in the Autumn put mesh up to avoid a recurrance next year if you can't live with the idea of a bit of Nature about the place..

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 10-04-2007 09:39AM

10-10-20 wrote:

Hmmm... When birds are setting up nest, they like to choose a place that is quiet. I have a bird box in a tree looking at my house, and I had some tits start to build a nest in it up until I used my angle-grinder to trim some concrete slabs in the back last week. The've since abandoned the box!
Maybe some nine-inch-nails or other such chewing-gum-for-the-ears would encourage them to move along?

Otherwise, cutting into the felt will require that it's sealed again. I don't know what tape you could use - but I'm sure there is some for repairing such damage.

They didn't abandon the nest -yet. Blue tuts prepare a few nest sites and the female decides which she prefers. It is a bit too early yet for the nesting to have begun in earnest.

Sonnenblumen · 10-04-2007 05:58PM

Sounds like a tweet tweet alround for nesting birds.

JaneHudson · 14-05-2007 12:43PM

I think I have starlings as well. They look like little crows, but crows don't nest in the eaves do they? They are driving me mad and I need to get rid of them but I don't want to destroy the nest while they have young there. Does anyone know when the small ones leave home and we can get up there an sort our roof out?

JoeyJJ · 14-05-2007 12:51PM

Same happening in parents house, kept waking me up on week before last when I was visiting, going to wait till they move on I think then plug up any gap in the eves.

Stoner · 14-05-2007 05:33PM

I understand where people are coming from about not harming the birds etc, but i have seen these little guys taking over outhouses in the country, I doubt they are in decline in Ireland, anyway a farmer I know smokes them out (they were overly aggressive at the time and had attacked his mother)

A big issue with them is them dying and rotting in the water tanks in the attic, happened to us once, the smell of death off the water was something else. Anyway if you get them out early enough they will feck off somewhee else.

JaneHudson · 16-05-2007 12:39PM

Actually they were kinda quiet this morning. I think they might be big enough to feck off and find another nest now. If I can hire someone to re-do the sofits and fascia then maybe they can clear out the nest.
:cool:

joseph brand · 17-05-2007 03:32AM

It might not seem like it but starlings are a species in decline in Eurpoe. They only nest and brood/rear for about 5 weeks and apart from noise at feeding times aren't going to pose much of a nuisance and are even less likely to pose any sort of health treat to you or your family....so why not just leave them to get on with it?
People are far too quick to recommend killing the birds, filling the holes etc...a little more thought for the nature that has to live and adapt to the surroundings man has decided to alter around them wouldn't go amiss.

Here Here!!! Well said.

I am nearly finished building a bird house with 3 rooms, for house Sparrows which have declined, prob due to US!!

Would people not feel priviledged to have a pair of Blue Tits or House Sparrows living in their house/garden. You people are heartless monsters.

"Moan, moan, the the birds are pecking at the roof and they'll probably break the house!!" :eek:

joseph brand · 17-05-2007 03:34AM

here are the plans to building Sparrow house for next season.

http://www.beautifulbritain.co.uk/htm/wildlife_gardening/sparrow_terrace.htm

DO0GLE · 18-05-2007 07:52AM

Think I prevented them from nesting in my attic this year...hope they moved on, but they still pop in now and again. Woke me up at 6am this morning again. One tip I got was to use some chicken wire and fold it up under the slates and guttering to stop them from getting in in future. Hope to do this when they've migrated.

Birds nesting in roof problem

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