‘We Walked Into A Nightmare:’ Torrance Family Finds 800+ Birds In Home

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

Imagine coming home, early evening and walking inside and finding almost 1,000 birds are in your house! The owner quit counting at 800..Ha!

There is a good video at the following link below showing the wild encounter for this family.

‘We Walked Into A Nightmare:’ Torrance Family Finds 800 Birds In Home

I had something similar happen to me. I had a large 2 story home that cliff swallows took a liking to for their yearly nest site.

Some people think their mud nests tucked into your eves, etc are a terrible mess and need removing immediately. I chose differently.

IT was like every year they would return, and raise literally hundreds of babies.

We had a balcony on the second floor, and we would watch these birds fly around and sit on the rail in front of us etc.

One time, "someone" left the door from the master bedroom to the balcony open...Ha! And we came home and there were about 20 birds in the bedroom!

I got a large piece of cardboard and was able to gently guide all but three birds back to the door and freedom. The last three I had to catch with a butterfly net device I made up.

I kind of felt a bit blessed that house was "chosen" as the colonies home breeding ground.

And you could not find a mosquito within 100 yards of our house! They gobbled up any flying bug anywhere close to the house.

Side benefits mate for letting the birds live there and breed there at the ol homestead.

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: pravdaseeker

Squaters rights!

a reply to: Randyvine

Hello Randyvine,

Yeah, I suppose so...that was another reason I let them be. Live and let live, no harm was being done, only good.

I am told the new owner immediately removed the nests, (killing several dozen baby birds), and the birds never came back to the neighbourhood after that.

The neighbours also noted that the mosquitoes were back in the "monsoon season" and making dining outside a bit of a hassle for them! Ha!

I always hoped that the colony found another safe home to reside at. Or a good proper cliff somewhere. You see them a LOT under highway bridges etc, but a reliable yearly water source is needed close by too.

They are such lovely birds and can fly for hours and hours without landing. Soaring on the gentlest of breezes.

Pravdaseeker

Gross..that's a lot of bird poop. One will paint my shop in one night.
Don't teach them about all the mites that fall off birds.
They'll tear up the carpet.
Ugh

a reply to: Mandroid7

Hello Mandroid7,

Yeah, all them birds did poop a bit didn't they! Good grief, they certainly had a mess when they got home for sure.

Wonder if there was a home owners insurance claim made? And if so, was it denied as an "act of God"; or ruled it was their fault for NOT having a chimney "screen"?

You can bet that home insurance companies will have this as a "loophole" soon, if not already. No screen? No claim!

Luckily when my event occurred, we hadn't been gone long, just an hour or so... and I guess the birds didn't have much time to make a mess, plus I only had about 20 in the bedroom..

Even that 20 created quite the excitement, and all, especially from the wife and 5 kids..Ha!

The clean up needed in my case was minimal. But yeah, if we had gone for the weekend or something... Ha! It could've been an ugly mess.

As a side note, we never found an adult swallow dead around the house, but the occasional baby tossed from the nest? Yes.

The no dead adult bird found around the house thing I thought was odd because in the few peak years we literally had about 450 pairs or so nesting there. Do swallows typically "cark it" somewhere on the wing?

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: pravdaseeker

Lol..yikes..That's still a lot of birds!!
I've never had that happen, although we did have a Great Horned Owl get stuck in there before.
That thing was a monster.
Not sure about the swallows, but they love to dive bomb you on the lawn mower or gocarts when you kick up bugs in the grass.
I think they make mud nests, but not sure.

a reply to: pravdaseeker

Did you see the link at the bottom of that article, about the same thing happening in Montecito , a couple days later...

losangeles.cbslocal.com...


Here's another article about both incidents.
Flocks of Migrating Birds Invade 2 California Homes Days Apart

There is one big difference between the 2 occurrences: The Montecito homeowners had a gate covering the front of their fireplace, so all of the birds were trapped inside the chimney/fireplace.

Meanwhile, days later, another homeowner in Montecito — which is about 100 miles northwest of Torrance — found themselves in a nearly identical situation.

According to their post, about 1,000 small birds became stuck in the home's chimney on Sunday night, requiring the help of Santa Barbara County Animals Services.

"We had hoped they would fly up and out the flue on their own overnight," the post reads. "Montecito Fire and County Animal Services returned to the residence Monday morning to find the birds still trapped at the base of the fireplace."

NBC/CW affiliate KSBY reported that the birds in the second incident were later identified as swifts. It is believed that the birds in the first incident may also have been swifts, per KTLA.

Boy, I tell ya..

Those Torrance Families never catch a break. Writers block, haunted hotels, bird infestations...lol

ETA: I hope it isn't a indication for seismic activity...
It is California..😬😬🙏🏾

a reply to: pravdaseeker

Call the nearest McDonald's

They'll turn them into "chicken" McNuggets in no time....

a reply to: M5xaz

Hello M5xaz,

Wa Ha! Good one... yeah, you never know what is really in them "nuggets" do you?

Macca's as its known in Oz.... is also not considered a very healthy place to eat for Ozzians.

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: BrokenCircles

Greetings Circles that are Broken, ( that would be your "Native American" name)

Yes! Saw that too.... Pretty wild eh?

I don't recall any "bird stories" coming out of California over the years do you? You'd think something as odd and quirky as this would hit the news more often if it was a common thing for these birds to do.

Personally, I have never heard of this happening. Twice in a week? Strange.

Maybe we should keep and eye and ear out for any other odd animal behaviour in that region?

Thinking earth changes things, like quake coming, or something like that?

Then again, maybe it isn't odd at all, but never covered before in the news?

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: EternalShadow

Greetings EternalShadow,

Yep, that thought crossed my mind after posting it, and especially after the other poster reminded me of the other story too, on bird infestation in nearby community.

2021 is gonna be a very weird year too... apparently.

I also think "weird" is going to become the normal. In all aspects of life, as we begin to "Surf the Apocalypse".

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: pravdaseeker
Birds that nest in large colonies tend to ostracize the sick and elderly so that they don't perish in the nests and foul the area up. It also draws scavengers which are also not wanted.

I did love your cliff swallow story - they are my favorite birds having watched a colony of barn swallows for years that nested under a bridge. I had the best vantage point to see them come and go with a small pond below, a cattail marsh and a blue heron rookery 200 yards deep in the swamp.

a reply to: pravdaseeker

Oh my god.
That’s fricken insane

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Hello ask the animals,

What you said makes sense.... I did notice that with corella's here in oz. They usually travel in large flocks, but once one gets sick they chase them away I think.

Where I am at now, I see mostly parrot type birds, with curlews, and ibis tossed in for effect. Oh yeah, birds called honey eaters, and wood ducks too.

I do love the critters, especially the feathered ones.

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: pravdaseeker

One year a juvenile chimney swift was making a racket in our chimney pipe, then PLOP, he lands on the floor of my kitchen. Beautiful little bird. I tried to save it, but it couldn't fly high enough and ended up being run over by a car. It was so sad as I nurtured it for a few days and had high hopes for the poor little thing.

originally posted by: pravdaseeker
a reply to: M5xaz

Hello M5xaz,

Wa Ha! Good one... yeah, you never know what is really in them "nuggets" do you?

Macca's as its known in Oz.... is also not considered a very healthy place to eat for Ozzians.

Pravdaseeker

Even better nickname is "Rotten Ronnie's"

Cheers

a reply to: Night Star

Hello NightStar,

Well, at least you tried... Some of these birds have such a special diet... it is easy for you try like crazy to help them, but by the time you get them, they are already so close to death many are beyond help.

They are starved and badly dehydrated by the time you, a human, are "allowed" to get close enough to pick them up. You can pick them up cuz they are terribly ill... so the odds are against them ..

Who knows how long that bird was stuck in your chimney too.

I helped a lady once who had picked up a golden eagle that had been hit by a car as it was eating road kill...

It looked dead as, or like in a coma... but we headed to the vets office anyways.

Whilst the lady was in the office, this bloody eagle WAKES UP inside her little SUV! HA! Spreads it wings and they hit the windows on both sides...it shook its tail, and took a big ol poop down her back seats!

I go in the vets office, and tell them the bird is awake now, and not real happy about being in her SUV, and you will need something a LOT bigger than that tea towel to grab him!!! They had this tiny tea towel HA!!!

So they got three BIG towels, and tossed them over the bird. Vet had on some leather gloves and grabbed its feet.

Luckily the bird was just stunned! It had a small cut on one wing, but no broken bones. They sat it down out the back door, and it took off, a flew straight back to the area where the lady found it by the road..

That bird was magnificent! Its feet were huge, claws were huge, and STRONG as...

I kept thinking, "What if that bird woke up when she was carrying it to her SUV?" It could've easily ripped her a new one and handed her appendix to her in a heart beat!

We had a big win that day.

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: pravdaseeker

Now that's something you don't see everyday!

In Portugal destroying swallow nests is against the law, unless we have a special licence.

I was fortunate to have an awesome swallow encounter in S CA...someone found a swallow not
doing well & brought it in to the Vet Hospital. Seemed okay, just weak. So we re hydrated & fed
it for ~ 3 days before it could be released.

I was in charge of him & he immediately took to me
& hung on me scrubs & did not want to leave me, so probably a juvenile. I had to spend quite a
bit of time with him feeding so often that when he was put away he would figure out a way to
to escape & would come searching for me, not flying around but walking own the halls. Once I
was in sight, boom immediate half fly & walk, latch to me pants & as fast as he could climb,
right up to the chest & shoulder area & just wanted to "hang-out".

I bloody loved him!!! So glad we were able to recover & release him. Have worked with many birds
& especially birds of prey, but this was me first & only swift.

Cheers
Ektar