A bird in the house??

This morning we got home from meeting w/ Matt in Rushville, and I'm trying to get caught up making beds, etc... when Grace comes running in saying, "I'm scared! There is a bird in the kitchen!" Of course, I'm thinking - when was the last time I had the windows open? B/c my mother-in-law commented on how we needed to get our screens in the windows... but no way has a bird been hanging out in the house for a few days, right?

So I'm looking around I don't see a bird - but I really hear a bird, so where is he? The baby monitor in the kitchen, maybe it's picking up noise from upstairs? So I get close to it - the monitor is near the cook top - that's when I hear, "chirp, chirp... bang, bang, bang". Oh my gosh - the bird is in the hood over the cook top!

I call Matt in a panic, I really don't like birds and I'm wondering if he can get in the house... Matt's too far away to come home and take care of it - he called his dad but he was out too. I called Mom, who said "oh we used to get those in the fireplace all the time... your dad would just leave them - they die or get out". Okay that might work for a fireplace, but dead bird over your cook top I don't think so! So I called Debbie:-) Debbie knows EVERYTHING when it comes to kitchens. She said make sure the damper is open, and turn the fan on as high as it goes (I was afraid I might chop him up so I didn't have the fan on).

The girls and I did this, and then ran outside - thinking we'd see a dazed and confused bird come tumbling out... but no bird. I would turn the fan off and on checking to see if he was out - this went on for at least an hour before I didn't hear the bird again.

Post situation: Matt opened the hood and checked the inside to make sure there weren't any feathers - or worse (what a scared bird might leave behind!) but luckily there wasn't... he's going to add a screen in addition to the damper:-)