As a bird lover, am I over-reacting?!

greensalad

Black_Cat2 said:

I also love pigeons (not something I thought I'd say today lol) but unfortunately you can't tell your neighbours what to do.  Even suggesting something is a no no.  People take offence very easily. 

I feel pigeons get a bad press but they do have a place in 'nature's chain' by hoovering up all the seeds the messy 'cutesy' birds drop.  I'm sure if they looked like peacocks people wouldn't dislike them so much!

Embrace the pigeons peeps.  Plus they are great target practice for my cat, who btw, has never caught one.  Something about them seeing things in slow motion I think?  Should've paid more attention to Mr Attenborough! 🦃

Also pigeons were partially domesticated by us and then abandoned. They suck at life because they weren't really meant to be living wild and free. Common pigeons at least, wood pigeons are probably much better off!

dander

I'm the opposite of a bird lover - I'm pretty bird-phobic. I'm pretty sure the reason I get the shivers from birds is from having a bird trapped in my bedroom chimney when I was a child - fireplace all sealed and out of use, but a bird fell in and died a long slow death. The trouble is they don't just quietly starve, they scratch and flap to try and get out. It's intermittent and it goes on a long time - long periods of quiet then the scratching and flapping noises. I had it happen in my own house as an adult too - I hadn't realised the chimneys weren't capped and I immediately had someone round to put cages on. It's really very insignificant in cost, just needs a man, a ladder, a cage and a bit of cement - takes no time at all. On the plus side, it really doesn't happen very often. I had a blocked up fireplace unblocked and I couldn't be in the house because I was convinced there would be a whole pile of bird corpses in there, but apparently there was just one. So there's really every chance it won't happen with your neighbours, and if it does I'm sure it will be so creepy and horrible that they get that cap put on straight after.

Slinky

We had a gas fire removed from a chimney brest which had an open fireplace behind it. The gas fire had been in place for probably 20-30 years. The pot was very short with no cap on it. There were no birds behind the gas fire, so I conclude it's not something that happens often.

twopenny

Brave of you to mention it to your neighbour, it sounds like you did it well as they didn't take offense.

When i lived in a semi I split the cost of scaffold and anti seagull gizmos in the chimney because my neighbours were scared by the noise.

It came to£300 so £150 each.