Wanted to post an update for the bird lovers out there. Junior and I successfully got Woody out of the house. And I am happy to say that while I was in the driveway scrubbing down the spark-guard-thingy, I thought I could hear a woodpecker over in the woods. That made me feel very happy, by the way. Before we were able to let him out I did put some grapes in the fireplace for him.
If someone knows woodpeckers, there was a slash of red on the back of his head, his wings were spotted, and the underside of his tail was bright yellow. Like I said earlier, he was just beautiful. And huge. I suspect that he was too big to actually fly straight up in as small a space as the chimney flue. Poor guy.
And poor me. Teach me to leave some ashes in the fireplace…do you know what beating wings do to ashes?