When we lived in Fairfax City we had a family of raccoons in our chimney.
We thought they were cute until they tried to get in the house.  We have
always used a chimney cap since then.

A couple of years back a Barn Owl went down a chimney of a new suburban
house in Ashburn, VA; the next night another Barn Owl went down the same
chimney.  The rehabber released them at the Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve in
central Loudoun Co. where they have successfully nested ever since.

In our own current house near Snicker's Gap in western Loudoun Co we have
had Carolina Wrens come in several times, and a flying squirrel once (at
Christmas).  The latter was a trip getting out as mammals can do a lot of
damage in a pretty short time.  All of them came in open doors - the door
doesn't need to be open long or wide for them to manage it.

Joe Coleman
Loudoun Co., VA

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Weiner" <>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 11:02 PM
Subject: [MDOSPREY] house/winter wren in NW DC


> Winter wrens are uncommon enough in our urban NW DC neigborhood; they are
> even rarer inside people's houses!  a banging on the living-room windows a
> few mornings ago early turned out be a winter wren trying to get out.
>
> all the windows and doors were closed; the wren either flew in the
> previous
> day and overnighted (like overwintering, I suppose, but much shorter)
> without anyone noticing, or fell down the (flueless) chimney.  neither
> seems very likely.  the episode ended happily when the front door was
> opened and the wren flew out without incident.
>
> has anyone had birds fly/drop in the house through the chimney?
>