I could use some advice here. I just happened to look out the window towards my little Weber grill. There was a small bird, with stuff in its mouth, flitting around and after a second it crawled into the opened ash trap. The bird is building a nest in my grills ash catcher. I went to remove the ash catcher and I saw that there was a bird in it so I stopped.
What is my best bet for evicting the birds without harming them, and what can I do to dissuade their return?
Of all the ash catchers in the world, they had to walk into yours. :smack: Fire up the grill, and cook dinner. They’ll scram before getting hurt. Really, it’s your call. If watching the little couple raise a family is worth giving up your grilling season, let them stay. If not, evict them. Even if there’s a clutch of eggs, they’ll lay more in a different place. It’s no great crisis for them, it’s just another tricky day.
I am a huge bird lover and almost all the time I would say just wait it out. But if you plan to grill again this year, I guess you have to evict the little guys. What a strange place for them to go.
In exchange, if you do feel badly, you could hang up a small birdhouse close by…?
Or, can you relocate the ashcatcher/nest? On my grill, the ashcatcher is just an empty can.
If neither eggs nor young are present, remove the nest. The adults will nest again elsewhere. If eggs or young are present, and they are ‘native’ birds, removal or disturbance is a violation of law (Migratory Bird Treaty Act). As vetbridge says, moving the ashcatcher to a nearby alternate location will probably work. And, while it would be a violation of the strict letter of the law, I doubt you would ever be prosecuted.
I lucked out. It was very early in the process and I could not find a discernable nest, just some stuff to start the nest.
As I was heading outside to empty the ash catcher, the bird that had been scoping out my grill as a condo, beat a retreat to the huge live oak tree in the yard. I’ve emptied the ashes and few leaves and closed the air holes. Hopefully, the birds will not make any more attempts. I think they would be happier in the tree anyway.
I’m envious. Occasionally, mourning doves will start a nest atop the light fixtures outside my apartment’s doors. They’ll get it all set up and sit in them for a few days before they are scared off.
If it were my grill, I’d’ve loved to have such visitors.
It could be much worse. A robon kept slaming into two side by side windows in my house near a spruce. The first day by noon it averaged 4 slams a minute and kept up that pace for hours. It’s a sun rise to sun set occurance. The windows are mared up and it doesn’t come out. The windows the grass bye them and the tree limbs were covered in shit, because it slams so hard it knocks the shit out of him. Towels hung over them on the outside slowed it down, but every little breeze the robin would attack. It waited tring to peer around the towel, ready to pounce. Two years ago I decided I hated robins because one followed me everywhere around the yard perching on the house or garage roof to dive me. Last year I made sure to remove every nest they started. Last year they wanted it 2 feet from the front door and that ain’t happening. The only bird I hate worse than a robin is a gull. The ground doves are stupid. They pile some loose twigs on a limb and the nest falls apart to the ground in a week.