I've really had to laugh at this otherwise I'd be crying! For a long time now, more than 18 months, I've had, what I thought was, a problem with my plumbing - House, nothing personal you understand, but then again? - Anyway, often, mostly in the early morning when I'm lying in bed trying to stir myself into rising, I can hear a noise like the pipes (mine are copper pipes) being "interfered" with. At first I thought it was air locking, but it doesn't sound quite "right" to be that. Then, talking to my nextdoor neighbour, I discovered that they had had squirrels in their roof and so had the people at the end of the road. You should see the mess they'd made! So I thought, Oh no, must be squirrels "dancing" on the pipes in the loft! (The noise has always seemed to come from the top of the house). Extensive investigations, more than once, revealed no evidence of anything which might even be remotely connected! So I've been living with this most annoying noise, which worries me more than a little as we've had quite a bit of trouble over the last couple of years with our heating system, blocked pipes and air locks stopping circulation - always when the weather is at it's coldest of course! What's really strange though is that this noise only seems to happen early in the morning and it makes no difference whether the heating is active or not.
This morning I had to take the Punto in to Harrisons to get it's clutch changed (more on that elsewhere) and because I was worried it might not make it I left the house a little before 7.00. - Knowing that Kenny himself is usually in early - Traffic was light and she behaved herself well enough for me to complete the journey. I then arrived at the bus stop just as "my" bus drew up so I was back in the house just shortly after 8.00. Poured a cup of tea and sat down in the living room. Darn it! there's the pipe noise! I raced up the stairs - maybe a bit of an exaggeration with my arthritis - and climbed up into the loft thinking, "got you this time"! The noise was still audible and quite loudly too, which seemed to say, yes this is in the roof somewhere. But, almost immediately it stopped. It had lasted long enough for me to be sure it was coming from the gable end where the water tank is - so that might tie in with it being to do with pipes. Went back down and got my Cree Led inspection lamp and spent the next 5 minutes or so looking. Not a sign of anything in the slightest untoward! How can this be? Thought I was going to find a squirrel nest or something worse (Rats?). Gave up and went back down to my, now tepid, cup of tea - and there it is again! Leapt off the sofa and headed to the door when I realized the noise was noticeably louder near the fire, which is a gas "hole in the wall" job on the gable end wall. Couldn't be something "fiddling" with the exhaust guard for the fire could it? Raced outside, but no, nothing going on. Not 5 minutes later there it is again! Back up into the loft and this time the noise hasn't stopped. Hopped over the joists (only the other half of the loft is floored) without putting my foot through the ceiling, and the noise is actually in the gable end itself? Then it stopped again. Can't figure this out. Oh well, make a nice new hot cup of tea. Just sat down and there it is again. Don't believe it, never heard it happening so much before. But I thought, without any really solid reasoning behind it, I wonder if something is on the roof? Raced out the front door and over to the pavement on the other side of the road just in time to see a Magpie "dancing" in our TV aerial before launching itself off in flight. Our houses are in a bit of a dip in the ground so we all have our aerials are on long poles - maybe 8 or 10 ft long - secured, in our case, to, you've guessed it, THE GABLE END! As he/she (how do you know with birds?) launched, the mast vibrated and oscillated producing the noise I've been hearing all this time! The mast is secured with two substantial angle iron brackets to the gable end wall which, I guess, is serving as a sounding board! You couldn't make it up could you! Wonder why they only indulge in this "recreation" early in the morning? Unbelievably "chuffed" to have solved the mystery at last!