Two things happened. First, a few months back, Alex was playing tennis off the side of the house and he broke part of the dryer vent cover. Then, a few weeks ago, my visiting teacher was telling me about how her dryer was pouring out smoke and they figured out some birds had been in there making a nest and it caught fire so they had to reroute their dryer vent. These two things together got me thinking...it is spring, and our dryer vent is vulnerable to birds.
I had noticed some birds being protective around the garage area as if they had a nest and then last Monday, I saw one go into the dryer vent. Ok, now I knew for sure they probably had a nest in there. After school, I told Alex that he would need to get up there and check it out and pull the nest out. (We're trying to do natural consequences, and afterall, he was the one who broke the cover). He was difficult about it, of course, and claimed he was scared of heights and afraid of the birds pecking him. Finally, when we couldn't take his complaining anymore, Eric got up there and this is what he found:
That is no small nest! I couldn't believe all of that was in our dryer vent. It's all the perfect fixins to start a fire...dry leaves, dry grass, small twigs and heat...just what I learned at camp to collect when starting a fire. I feel very blessed that we didn't have a fire before we found it. Needless to say, the birds were VERY unhappy about their nest being disturbed. The kids were a little sad for the birds too, even Alex.
9 comments:
Wow! That is a big nest. I'm glad you found it before something bad happened. Your vent must be pretty big.
holy cow! that is a heck of a nest!! good thing you noticed!
We have removed no less than 9 nests from ridiculous locations this spring. With all the trees around us, I just don't understand why birds pick the places they do to build nests!
You could take that nest and place it in a milk jug, with the side cut off, and holes punched in the bottom. and hang it in a near by tree. I did this once... we had one of the babies survive. It's worth a shot if you ask me, but you know me and animals
wow! that is quite the nest! that certainly is not small! What kind of birds were they?
I'm with christie on this I would put it somewhere near by so they could find it. Poor little guys.
WOW - that's crazy!!! I would never have thought about that!!! We used to get our kitten up in there from time to time - but she didn't like it when we turned on the dryer :) Lost 3 collars in there, though, because of it! SO GLAD you found it!
You must have a pretty big vent to have that fit in there. Good thinking that you were able to get it before it started a fire or anything as serious. Regular dryer vent cleaning is really important to make sure that the dryer is performing smoothly and can save on your electric bill as well.
Eric Powell
That’s one big nest. You really were thinking ahead and I’m sure that saved you lots of dollars than when you’ve left it there. You can also check for the lint buildup on the vents as those can also create some complications on your dryer vents.
Barry Chavez
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