An Unexpected Guest

A couple of weeks ago when I was cleaning up the house I heard some weird scratching noises in the chimney.  I disregarded it as nothing but the next morning the boys came running in to our room telling us that there was something in the chimney.  I looked up the chimney and could see some feathers and realized that there was a bird in our chimney.  We tried for hours to get him out and finally decided we would just leave the chimney open with hopes that he would come out on his own.  

Just as we sat down to eat dinner that night we heard a thud and there he was looking at us.  It was a baby magpie and he was just as surprised to see us as we were him.  I grabbed a blanket and thought I would be able to throw it over him before he started flying all over my house.  I crept toward him and he reacted flying straight toward me which caused me to duck and he flew around the family room for a minute and ended up perched on one of the candle  holders above the fireplace.  

I decided to go for attempt number two with the blanket but he took to flight before I could reach him and went flying straight towards the family huddled in the kitchen.  They all went screaming into the next room and the poor magpie flew right into the kitchen cabinets, fell to the counter behind the rice cooker and was finally trapped.  I threw the blanket over him and transported him outside.  He cried the whole way which upset the kids more than the fact that he had just tried to create a scene out of the movie The Birds and attack their father. 

He was finally free after two days stuck in our chimney.  We hope he doesn't come visit us again anytime soon.