'Something's' in my chimney!!

Minky2Slice

while getting dressed on friday morning, i heard a weird noise in the wall behind the mirror. at first it sounded like water gushing down, then i realised it must be the old chimney, and something falling down.
hubby said he heard something while downstairs...
have not heard any more noises since then
Problem is our chimney is closed off at the bottom in the living room.

So, if it is a bird or something that got stuck/fell down my chimney...well, should i try to open it up in the living room to see what it is/was :eek:

chnelomi

was the chimney swept before it was blocked and is it blocked at the top? too much ventilation can give debris access to the chimney which eventually builds up then trickles down in an eerie cascading way all of a sudden. Best check that their isn't a birds nest at the top too.

Minky2Slice

not sure about it being swept as we recently moved in here. its closed at the bottom, but i susect its not blocked at the top.

Thats exactly how i would describe the noise, but also heard some sort of fluttering, like a bird flapping its wings...
Maybe i shall just leave it, as no more noises... but at the same time i cant stop thinking there might be something dead in there now.. ?

skiTTish

We heard a similar thing once ,followed by tapping coming from behind the fire where the back boiler was .Took the fire out to find the biggest bloomin talons doing a tap dance on the back boiler !!:eek:
Turned out to be a fully grown owl ,how the hell it fitted down there ,we will never know

dander

When I was a child a bird fell down the chimney and got stuck behind the sealed up fireplace in my bedroom. For what seemed like weeks, but was probably just a few days, you could hear scratching and flapping in there as it slowly died. Not one of my most treasured childhood memories.

diable

On a windy day chimneys can be noisy with debris coming loose and falling in to the void.

Equinox

If it's closed off, then it won't really affect you (if you can bear the thought of some rotting carcass behind the block - if it so happened to be something alive). I personally wouldn't bother if the block is airtight sealed and would cost more to replace...

At my old student house, I heard some noises in my chimney. After coming back after going away for a weekend, I found a damn pigeon in my room which broke through the bunch of plastic bags I put in there to keep out the draft. You can imagine my surprise finding something like that there.