Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Invasion of the Birds




Over the past 6 months-1 year, our house (my parent's) has been home to several Spoggies (local slang for Sparrows). They usually inhabit the underside of our timber roof which is a part of our extension to the house.

"Tweet, tweet."


"Tweet, tweet."


"Chirp, chirp."


"Chirp, chirp," comes the reply.


Every morning or so I hear them tweet, flap, flutter and scratch around in our roof. I must say I admire their courage, they must have a nest up there, and we've been trying to get them out for I don't know how long. It seems like quite a while though.

The effort for us to try and get them out results in frustration everytime. The roof is far too high for Mum, Dad or me to reach and when they fly out from one end of the roof they enter from the other side when they think we aren't watching!
Honestly, it seems like "The Attack of the Birds" to me. The way they sit there, staring at us with their little beady eyes in the bushes, trees and on our gutter (pipes that lead to the water tank).

Dad has at one stage tried to block off their main entry point with some steel wool but they just pushed it out the end. It didn't really help much because, as I said before, there are many other entry points along the roof. As I currently can't find our camera I cannot show you what our roof looks like but nevermind. However I have added some pics of the "culprits".

We didn't seem to have this trouble when we still had our cat over 2 years ago. Unfortunately our previous cat died of cancer and we haven't got another one since.
I too have tried getting the cheeky chirpers out of the roof by banging on the ceiling with my fists. This has worked a few times to get them moving, but they are very determined little tweeters. About half an hr to an hr later, they pluck up the courage again and strategise how to enter the roof without my seeing them!

All the other birds in the neighbourhood seem to find it very entertaining as well. I swear half of them are laughing at us in the mornings as we try to scare the Spoggies out of the roof. Our neighbours must find the sight of us hilarious too. Picture me in my bright pink pyjamas, jumping up and down on a chair, hitting the ceiling with my fist and mouthing what must look like shouts of rage- or insanity.

As I write this, one of the pudgy culprits is perched on our TV aerial trying to make me feel sorry for it by showing off his cute little head, small shiny eyes and waggily tail. Well guess what buddy, that's not going to work on me.

How about you feel sorry for me this time Mr. Sparrow? Me with the bedraggled hair, the long, drawn out eyes from all the headaches you give me and my...

Oh who am I kidding? Everyone's going to believe the birds- cunning little chirpers!

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