Rowdy seagull surprises chimney sweep

A chimney sweep was met with surprise when he "battled" a seagull after it became stuck in a disused chimney flue.

Neil Jarrett, 48, filmed the moment the "rambunctious" bird dropped into a fireplace, before flapping its wings in a panic.

Mr Jarrett said he had received a phone call on Wednesday from a concerned resident in Alverstoke, Gosport, after she noticed feathers falling from her unused chimney.

He first suspected it was either a dead animal, or the result of bad weather the night before, because she said she could not hear any movement.

Chimney sweep Neil Jarrett said the seagull had some "bite power"

Mr Jarrett explained: "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."

Mr Jarrett believes the seagull may have landed in the flue as the birds are likely to be nesting at this time of year.

He said: "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."

The chimney sweep of two years posted a video on social media, which shows the bird standing on his hand for a few seconds, before flying out of the window.

Mr Jarrett added said: "He had probably been in there a couple of days and was probably quite dehydrated by that stage.

"There's no cliché involved, every day is totally different. No two days are the same."