Brain on Fire » Blog feed Tim McCormack says words

Starlings in the basement!

Automated disclaimer: This post was written more than 10 years ago and I may not have looked at it since.

Older posts may not align with who I am today and how I would think or write, and may have been written in reaction to a cultural context that no longer applies. Some of my high school or college posts are just embarrassing. However, I have left them public because I believe in keeping old web pages alive—and it's interesting to see how I've changed.

I'm currently living in a 2-unit apartment near Boston, MA. Over the last 2 weeks, there have been three incidents of a chimney, but the exhaust ducts do lead into a brick column in the basement door, it managed to free itself and fly out.

Based on the third incident, it seems the "tameness" stems from exhaustion. Our best guess is that the gas-powered water and heating exhaust into an otherwise disused chimney with an improperly screened cap. (I haven't confirmed the existence of a chimney, but the exhaust ducts do lead into a brick column in the heating duct, so I left the basement light on, too.

  • Found a dead starling. We left a dish of water out after this, as well as a tray with some stale bread. (Didn't know if it had died of thirst or exhaustion.) Heard something fluttering in the heating duct, so I left the basement.)

    1. Bird hanging out near water dish, similar to first. I managed to walk up to it having eaten a good deal of my aloe plant, which is a laxative. *No idea* how it got into living space -- all the doors were closed.

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