Starlings in my attic

BlazingSaddler

Hi, not sure if right forum so apologies if not. I thought I had blocked up any holes into the eaves after having problems last year but the buggers are back with avengence! I could just about cope with them in the eaves and gutters but at least one has gotten into the attic. I don't much fancy getting up into a fancy cramped space with a panicked bird. What should I do?!
Thanks

I get them too. We always block up the holes but they still manage to get in. Our attic is converted too. There have been times were i open the wall doors and a bird flies out .

Knine

I will take the starlings any day as I have Jackdaws trying to nest in mine. They killed the baby starlings.

No way are they staying there, can you just imagine the mess and noise!

BlazingSaddler

My god, the noise these birds make at 6.30 every morning is unbearable. They are in the eaves above the bedroom window and it sounds like they are right on top of us. They get in at the very top of the apex so I just cannot get high enough to fill in the holes. When do the starlings usually move on?, am I going to have to put up with this for long?

KingIsabella

Had bats in my ceiling and dry walls for 5 months....i have no sympathy.

kylith

mattb74 wrote: »

My god, the noise these birds make at 6.30 every morning is unbearable. They are in the eaves above the bedroom window and it sounds like they are right on top of us. They get in at the very top of the apex so I just cannot get high enough to fill in the holes. When do the starlings usually move on?, am I going to have to put up with this for long?

I feel your pain. I used to live in a place that had a magpie sit right above my bedroom window every day at dawn and make that awful machine gun noise. It nearly drove me insane, especially since I was a student and was usually only crawling into bed about that time.

BlazingSaddler

Does anybody know when the Starlings will be moving on. They are still here, noisier and messier than ever, poking all over the place. I'll give them another week or two then so help me I'll be blocking their entrance

snoman

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/s/starling/nesting.aspx

This may help. At least it gives some sort of timetable..... couple of months, it looks like!!!

Pumpkinseeds

I know Blue tits are very popular but Jesus H we've got 2 that just don't stop rat a tat tatting all day long. From sunrise til about 9pm it goes on and frigging on. Its head splitting at times as one is on the roof next door and the other is in a tree 2 houses away chatting to each other. They are nesting in next doors wall in a space above a pipe. Every year they come back, little buggers, you wouldn't think that 2 such small birds could make so much noise.

bluecherry74

I got woken up at around 5am on Sunday morning by the sound of something tapping on my roof. It turned out to be a blackbird raiding my gutters for nesting material. When I went down a few hours later I discovered my patio was covered with wet moss and leaves. :rolleyes: She seems to be finished now thankfully.

kylith

I feel your pain. I used to never be able to sleep with my window open because at dawn every day a flock of sparrows would sit in the tree in my garden going 'Cheep, cheep, cheep', in a repetitive monotone for hours on end. I can put up with singing birds, but the relentlessness of the sparrows drove me up the wall.

Although I have to admit that they were less annoying than the magpie who used to perch above my window, back when I was in college, and make that machine gun noise from 6am.

SillyMangoX

My house is surrounded on 3 sides by trees which are full to the brim with rooks. All day and all night all you can hear is their cawing but at this stage I'm nearly immune to it, it's the high pitched small birds that are the most annoying or the bloody pigeon that landed on our roof
Outside my room (velux window) and say there from 8am cooing! I was tempted to allow my cats onto the roof!

Quality

Starlings are soooo noisy.

We had a noise in the attic for weeks before we copped on it was starlings under the tiles on the roof.
The husband was up and down the attic setting and checking traps. We thought we had mice, tap dancing mice!

Every morning it's like the billy Barry kids are practicing their tapping on my roof!

We used to get house martins but I think the starlings frightened them off this year. As no sign of them yet. They are lovely to watch. And less noisy too


Gonna get the tiles filled when they have left as they are costing me a fortune on car washes. Bird sh1t everywhere

Pretzill

I've had many creatures in my attic - rats were by far the most uninvited I had starlings too right above the bedroom - they make a lot of noise when feeding the young and they'll probably be there for most of the summer - I actually wasn't too bothered by them but was afraid that a chick may die somewhere where I couldn't retrieve it. I waited until the end of the season when I was sure they had left and filled any hole in the eaves with expandable foam - great stuff for blocking holes I'd stick wire mesh behind it to keep the rats out too.

Birdnuts

Pretzill wrote: »

I've had many creatures in my attic - rats were by far the most uninvited I had starlings too right above the bedroom - they make a lot of noise when feeding the young and they'll probably be there for most of the summer - I actually wasn't too bothered by them but was afraid that a chick may die somewhere where I couldn't retrieve it. I waited until the end of the season when I was sure they had left and filled any hole in the eaves with expandable foam - great stuff for blocking holes I'd stick wire mesh behind it to keep the rats out too.

The vast majority of young starlings will have fledged and left the nest by the end of this month

tk123

Our Tescos has speakers outside playing bird sounds to try and frighten the starlings away and stop them coming in

Pretzill

Birdnuts wrote: »

The vast majority of young starlings will have fledged and left the nest by the end of this month

not always the case often there are more than one brood or maybe i had a particularly busy pair - they stayed well into June - vacated before mid summer - didnt mean to give the op the impression they'd be there for 3 months:) edit to add they also hung around a way from the nest too perhaps it was their chattering that made it feel they were here longer

BlazingSaddler

Hi all. Since my original post I have had my attic converted so have 2 doors up there into the eaves (one at front, one at back). It's only been converted about 6 weeks. Last weekend I heard a noise coming from inside the eave at the back of the house, opened the door and the bird flew from one end of the space to the other, I panicked and slammed the door but when I looked back in he was nowhere to be seen. I did see it was a a Starling though, is it usual for a starling to be coming in at this time of year? Any ideas how I can catch the bigger (not great with birds or confined spaces!)