Woman referred to as chimney sweep to disused fire – a ‘battle’ up there adopted
A chimney sweep encountered a surprise “battle” after he was called out to investigate feathers falling from an disused fireplace.
A concerned resident in Alverstoke, Gosport, called on Neil Jarrett to take a look up her chimney on Wednesday July 17.
At first, the 48-year-old chimney sweep thought a dead animal could be behind the fallen feathers. He also considered they were the result of a recent bout of bad weather, as the resident couldn’t hear any movement coming from her chimney.
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To Neil’s surprise, the culprit was a “rambunctious” seagull, which dropped into the fireplace before kicking off against Neil in a panic.
![Stills from footage of man rescuing seagull from chimney](https://i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk/incoming/article33274295.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_Seagull-in-chimney-flue.jpg)
(Image: PA)
Neil said: “There was no way I was expecting it to be a seagull. I thought it might be a young pigeon. This was a first for me.
“I had to battle with that to get it out. The ungrateful little monkey didn’t like what was happening.
“He was a little bit more rambunctious, purely because of the size of him.”
The seagull may have ended up in the flue, due to nesting habits, Neil suggested, adding: “We’re in that nesting season where birds are fledgling youngsters, juveniles are scrabbling around for food off parents, so they do tend to knock each other down and then they’re stretching their wings and figuring out how to do this whole flying thing.”
![Stills from footage of man rescuing seagull from chimney](https://i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk/incoming/article33274302.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_Seagull-in-chimney-flue.jpg)
(Image: PA)
Neil, who has been a chimney sweep for two years, managed to capture the moment the bird tumbled out of the flue, and posted the video on social media. It shows the bird standing on his hand briefly before flying out of a window.
Neil guessed the bird had probably been lodged inside the chimney for a “couple of days” and was “probably quite dehydrated”.
At the other end of the UK, another saviour of seagulls has emerged. A man in Glasgow shimmied up a massive lamppost to rescue a gull trapped in the post’s poor design.
Like some crazed, Glaswegian superhero, the man ran up the pole in massive strides before pulling himself up as the bear-hugged the pole to free the bird, which was stuck near the top of the post.
People who watch the viral video of the moment praised the man for his impressive effort, while questioned how many pints he had in him.
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