Cheer-UP! Cheer-UP!! Cheer-UP!! Cheer-UP!!

[canesisters]

There is a small hole in the soffit right outside my window at the scale house. A few weeks ago a starling started building a nest up there. No harm, I guess. I always enjoy when the local wildlife visits.
I did NOT think this through... Now that there are babies I get to listen to them SCREAM "Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! Cheer-up! All day.....

I'm an NOT cheerful about it at all.
Thank goodness it's only a couple of weeks and they will be gone - and that hole WILL be patched!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

heh, they are just trying to make your day enjoyable! i enjoyed the moma finches that used to nest near a window at my previous employer. one of my coworkers named the parents Bob and Ethel. for about 3 years straight they kept that nest going and there was a small brood each time. the biddies used to start peeping every time we would walk by the window probably thinking we were the parents coming to feed them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This is the first year since we moved here that barn swallows are not trying to nest on my porch, front or back. I love barn swallows. They eat a lot of insects and I love watching them fly. I have plenty of places Id be ecstatic if they would build there, but not on my porch. It really gets messy under those nests.

I understand how aggravating that noise can be, plus I dont especially like starlings to start with. This too shall pass. The trick will be to repair that hole when Mama has finished raising these chicks and before she lays any more eggs in there. Do we need to set up a nag thread like Marshall had with his net to remind you to do it?

 

[canesisters]

No, I think the pounding headache I will have by then will be nagging enough. The very day that I no longer hear them 'cheering' either one of the guys will be up there with some wire or I will have a can of that gap filler foam.. one way or another they will be finding a new nursery.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

That could get old quickly. But at least it is good to know they are only temporary tennants.

 

[hoodat]

Be glad that's all they're doing. This could really drive you nuts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDriW76zmxs

 

[digitS']

They also make a stinky nest, those starlings. Seems that the parents have low standards of hygiene.

Do you know that I actually remember the 1st starlings I ever saw. This was back in the Pleistocene and they were finally making their invasive way into Oregon. Apparently the California "bug stations" had not been successful in keeping them out of that state after they'd made their way across the US from being released in NYC's Central Park. Yes, some devote group had decided the New World should have every bird mentioned in the bible. Cane', just remember that when you say your evening prayers.

I once lived in a 2 story house. The dormer was the window to the upstairs bathroom and the starlings found a hole to build a nest in the wall. One of the babies never made it out of the nest after the weeks of chirping. Stink! Right into that bathroom. Of course, that was during the time when we had a visitor. I didn't know what to do - I could open the window but that was no use!

You see, there was just about no room for a ladder on that side of the house. That wall was the only one that I finally broke down and had a contractor come in and paint. I'd painted the entire exterior of the house but didn't want to rent a scaffold and could NOT paint that wall on a ladder!

Patience is a virtue. Our guest, a nurse, left . . . I think she understood. Momma starling decided it was time to lay more eggs in her very special nest. I'd checked along that wall regularly. One day, I found the decaying body of the starling baby. Clinging with all digitS' and, no doubt, my teeth - I ascended that absolutely vertical ladder and patched that hole.

It was a horrible experience. I wish I'd never seen a starling in my life!

Steve

 

[lesa]

Oh, boy! Cheer-up indeed! If you really do want to cheer up and feel a little love in your heart for starlings- try and find the book "Arnie the darling Starling". It is a true story of a family that rescued a baby starling and the adventures that occurred as a result. I really enjoyed that book-but I must say I grit my teeth when I see them at the feeders. If only they didn't arrive in such crowds!

 

[bobm]

Last spring, right after we just purchased our house at the end of Nov., we woke up at 5:45 AM by the hungry wake up chanting calls of baby starlings from the fan exhaust lines from 2 bathrooms as well as from the laundry room. All 3 vents had bird proof covers ( Yea , right ) on the side of the house. The building inspector tested all three exhaust fans, then pronounced them in good working order. Yea,right ! the fan motors worked, however NO air was being exhausted. I spent hours in the attic to clear the 3 vent lines of years of copeous starling mess. I , then purchased some 1/2" x 1" welded wire and made my own bird proof cage over the existing cover that now actually works.