As I type this there is a robin sitting on the picture rail. It's quite
a large room, but no opening window. Door opens directly into the hall
and stairway.

How am I going to get the robin back outside?
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

"Kay Easton" wrote in message
...
As I type this there is a robin sitting on the picture rail. It's quite
a large room, but no opening window. Door opens directly into the hall
and stairway.

How am I going to get the robin back outside?

Shut the curtains and leave open only the doors along it's path so that the
only light it can see is on the route you want it to take. Although whether
this is going to work at this time of night is anybody's guess.

Or you could give it a room for the night and try again in the morning :-))

HTH

Steve

The message
from Kay Easton contains these words:

As I type this there is a robin sitting on the picture rail. It's quite
a large room, but no opening window. Door opens directly into the hall
and stairway.

How am I going to get the robin back outside?

When the room is completely dark (close curtains if you have street
lights) you should be able to pick the bird up off the rail. Take it
outside and stand it on a hedge twig :-}

If you can't get the room completely dark, and it sees your hand
approaching and shuffles along the rail to avoid you, shine a torch in
its eyes.

Janet

Kay Easton2/1/04 11:13

As I type this there is a robin sitting on the picture rail. It's quite
a large room, but no opening window. Door opens directly into the hall
and stairway.

How am I going to get the robin back outside?

Not practical at this time of night but - turn off all your lights and open
the nearest natural light source, door or window. It will head for that in
the morning so for security's sake, you might want to wait until then.
In the meantime, hang a sheet or blanket over the foot of the staircase to
prevent it from flying up there.
Put some newspaper under the picture rail tonight.
--

Sacha
(remove the 'x' to email me)

In article , Kay Easton
writes
As I type this there is a robin sitting on the picture rail. It's quite
a large room, but no opening window. Door opens directly into the hall
and stairway.

How am I going to get the robin back outside?

The same way I do, find out where it came in and (if it isn't a door)
leave it open so that it finds its own way out. Otherwise, leave it
alone in the room with the doors closed and deal with it in the morning
when it is light. It certainly won't hurt being indoors overnight,
except that it might get a taste for it and want to come inside every
evening!

In my experience(1), birds in houses, provided they are not being
chased, very, very rarely hurt themselves. It's humans trying to pick
them up that makes them panic. And, again in my experience, robins
anyway panic less than, say, starlings.

BTW, look for deposits in the morning. Behind pictures hanging on the
wall is a favourite place, only found when the picture is removed for
dusting (a rare event!).

(1) The following have all entered my house of their own volition:
robin, wren, blackbird, starling, sparrowhawk, house sparrow (being
chased by sparrowhawk - both survived), dunnock, chaffinch, greenfinch.
I am unsure whether I have a particularly welcoming house or it is
something to do with the wind and the rain that we (sometimes)
experience out west that makes the birds seek shelter.

--
Malcolm Ogilvie

In article , Kay Easton
writes
As I type this there is a robin sitting on the picture rail. It's quite
a large room, but no opening window. Door opens directly into the hall
and stairway.

How am I going to get the robin back outside?

How did yo get on with it in the end Kay?

Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

On Sat, 3 Jan 2004 10:48:55 +0000, Janet Tweedy
wrote:

In article , Kay Easton
writes
As I type this there is a robin sitting on the picture rail. It's quite
a large room, but no opening window. Door opens directly into the hall
and stairway.

How am I going to get the robin back outside?

How did yo get on with it in the end Kay?

"Who killed Cock Robin"?
--
Martin

In article , Janet Tweedy
writes
In article , Kay Easton
writes
As I type this there is a robin sitting on the picture rail. It's quite
a large room, but no opening window. Door opens directly into the hall
and stairway.

How am I going to get the robin back outside?

How did yo get on with it in the end Kay?


Thanks to everyone for your help.

By the time I posted I'd already decided to let it stay in overnight
rather than chuck it out unto sub-zero temperatures.

Daft idea - by morning there was no sign of it ;-)

After I'd searched the room for half an hour, I finally spotted it
regarding me from just beside the radiator.

It then ducked under a low table with table cloth hanging to the floor
all around and various boxes underneath. It was very quiet and non
panicky and let me catch it by coming towards it with a fold of the
cloth and quietly putting my other hand over its back. So we took it
outside where it fluttered up into the hedge.

I don't have high hopes of it - I don't think it should have been that
easy to catch. But we've done our best by it.

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

The message
from Malcolm Ogilvie contains these words:

(1) The following have all entered my house of their own volition:
robin, wren, blackbird, starling, sparrowhawk, house sparrow (being
chased by sparrowhawk - both survived), dunnock, chaffinch, greenfinch.
I am unsure whether I have a particularly welcoming house or it is
something to do with the wind and the rain that we (sometimes)
experience out west that makes the birds seek shelter.

One early summer morning our back door stood open all day long. When I
came in at the end of a long day gardening, I found a pair of swallows
sitting on the open beams; they had started a mud nest at the top apex
of the dining-room ceiling :~}

Janet.

The message
from Malcolm Ogilvie contains these words:

(1) The following have all entered my house of their own volition:
robin, wren, blackbird, starling, sparrowhawk, house sparrow (being
chased by sparrowhawk - both survived), dunnock, chaffinch, greenfinch.
I am unsure whether I have a particularly welcoming house or it is
something to do with the wind and the rain that we (sometimes)
experience out west that makes the birds seek shelter.

One early summer morning our back door stood open all day long. When I
came in at the end of a long day gardening, I found a pair of swallows
sitting on the open beams; they had started a mud nest at the top apex
of the dining-room ceiling :~}

Janet.

The message
from Janet Baraclough .. contains
these words:

One early summer morning our back door stood open all day long. When I
came in at the end of a long day gardening, I found a pair of swallows
sitting on the open beams; they had started a mud nest at the top apex
of the dining-room ceiling :~}

I found that a solitary wasp had begun a nest in a hole in the woodwork
of my main room (not here) which had been drilled at some time to let a
wire through.

I left the window open just enough to let her in and out until the nest
was finished, filled with anaesthetised small caterpillars, and sealed.

The wopslet hatched and pupated and broke out of its cosy hole, but I
didn't see the going of it.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from Janet Baraclough .. contains
these words:

One early summer morning our back door stood open all day long. When I
came in at the end of a long day gardening, I found a pair of swallows
sitting on the open beams; they had started a mud nest at the top apex
of the dining-room ceiling :~}

I found that a solitary wasp had begun a nest in a hole in the woodwork
of my main room (not here) which had been drilled at some time to let a
wire through.

I left the window open just enough to let her in and out until the nest
was finished, filled with anaesthetised small caterpillars, and sealed.

The wopslet hatched and pupated and broke out of its cosy hole, but I
didn't see the going of it.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from Janet Baraclough .. contains
these words:

One early summer morning our back door stood open all day long. When I
came in at the end of a long day gardening, I found a pair of swallows
sitting on the open beams; they had started a mud nest at the top apex
of the dining-room ceiling :~}

I found that a solitary wasp had begun a nest in a hole in the woodwork
of my main room (not here) which had been drilled at some time to let a
wire through.

I left the window open just enough to let her in and out until the nest
was finished, filled with anaesthetised small caterpillars, and sealed.

The wopslet hatched and pupated and broke out of its cosy hole, but I
didn't see the going of it.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from Janet Baraclough .. contains
these words:

One early summer morning our back door stood open all day long. When I
came in at the end of a long day gardening, I found a pair of swallows
sitting on the open beams; they had started a mud nest at the top apex
of the dining-room ceiling :~}

I found that a solitary wasp had begun a nest in a hole in the woodwork
of my main room (not here) which had been drilled at some time to let a
wire through.

I left the window open just enough to let her in and out until the nest
was finished, filled with anaesthetised small caterpillars, and sealed.

The wopslet hatched and pupated and broke out of its cosy hole, but I
didn't see the going of it.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from Janet Baraclough .. contains
these words:

One early summer morning our back door stood open all day long. When I
came in at the end of a long day gardening, I found a pair of swallows
sitting on the open beams; they had started a mud nest at the top apex
of the dining-room ceiling :~}

I found that a solitary wasp had begun a nest in a hole in the woodwork
of my main room (not here) which had been drilled at some time to let a
wire through.

I left the window open just enough to let her in and out until the nest
was finished, filled with anaesthetised small caterpillars, and sealed.

The wopslet hatched and pupated and broke out of its cosy hole, but I
didn't see the going of it.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/