Yeah so that happened, Episode 4: "a bird in the hand is worth cleaning your gutters"
Okay, it has been a while since I last had one of these to post. To be fair I have been busy with other things. But the weirdness does not wait.
I was out walking the dog earlier when we heard what sounded like scratching coming from one of the neighbors units. Now, normally I would disregard such a thing, because three of the people that side of the building own dogs, and it was likely their dogs. But the scratching kept going and was persisting like something trying to get attention.
I removed the covering on my ear to listen harder to try to pinpoint the sound, and found it coming from a unit that had no pet, and to be sure checked the balcony window. The scratching was coming from either the support pillar or the metal gutter with the plastic hose that was sealed.
I heard the scratching again and again, and it was definitely something panicking trying to escape the pillar or gutter. It was scared and in desperation trying to get out.
I had no idea what I was dealing with, maybe a bird, a rat, a mouse, an opossum, or even a ferret. I tried getting the dog to locate the point where the scratching was coming from, but Ernie was a doodle and while curious and always diving after vermin and birds, he was goofy faced confused as to what was going on. Should I let out the trapped animal, it might maul me or the dog; this was dangerous.
Now I need to preface this next part by explaining how the building's gutter systems works. It is a sealed unit, no holes on the rims around the roof, no holes on the bottom, only 2-3 exit points for fluids where metal pipes are fully open on the sides of the building. should something climb up the gutters, they are trapped unless they climb down another open drain pipe, and each building has two pipes on each side, with 8 pipes total, and no more than 3 open pipes per building. this building has 3/8 exit drains open, with a fourth drain leading to a plastic extension pipe that goes underground leading to a grassy drainage area.
the TLDR: it is extremely difficult to get into the pipes and more difficult to get stuck.
when I realized something was stuck and panicking and trying to get out, I knew I had to break the seal between the metal drain and the plastic connected pipe. or else, whatever was in there would suffocate, drown, starve, be crushed, or worse. I just decided to kick the area where the two pipes met to sever them without damaging them, and because I had isolated the sounds of the scratching and panicking to be far enough away that it would not hurt the animal.
Starting by lightly smacking the connected area with my palm, to make sure the animal would move out of the way, I pulled my leg up. With a swift kick, I knocked the two pipes apart, then as me and the dog watched for about 1.5 seconds, a medium-sized black and white bird shot out of the now open pipe like a bullet. then it expanded its wings, and in this hilarious "salvation day" like scene, the bird flew off like a rocket out of the complex. The look on the dogs face was PRICELESS. He was wide-eyed and staring at this bird that had flown out of a metal pipe, with this goofy expression like "THEY COME OUT OF THOSE?!?"
This is ridiculous as it is that this happened, the fact the bird was trapped there in the first place is even more ridiculous. because the gutter system is sealed, it means that the bird got stuck only one of two ways:
1. it flew UP one of the 3 open holes in the bottom exits of the gutter spouts.
2. it hopped up the plastic drain pipe that went underground to the grass drainage area.
then, it either:
1. fell down the pipe without getting hurt and got stuck
2. got lost and could not get back out.
considering that there are 8 pipes, that 3 are open, that the bird somehow went up an open pipe, did not exit another open pipe, got stuck, fell 3 stories without getting injured, AND was there making noise right as I was there to hear it and save it; this is either the luckiest or unluckiest bird on earth. depending on how you look at it. if I were not there at that moment, if I had not bothered to investigate, that would be a very upset or VERY dead bird.
This was absolutely ridiculous, a bird flying up a gutter and getting stuck, only to be saved right as they needed help the most? Yeah, that just happened....
