Three days ago I found all of our four cats sitting in our bathroom around the toilet. Thinking that one might have caught a mouse or something and it had fled to behind the loo I searched but found nothing. Everytime I went into the bathroom over the next three days the cats were their and a weak scratching noise was coming from either the soil pipe or the boxing in section of the pipe. Surely nothing could be in the pipe!!! anyway, I then checked on the outside of the house and noticed the capping was missing from the rooftop vent pipe which made me think it might be a bird that had fallen down and had somehow managed to scramble into the section behind the loo. Anne and I removed the manhole covers from the side of the house and while she stood with fishing net in hand over the junction in the manhole I flushed the loo whilst tipping a full large bucket of water down it but after three attempts we gave up and thought that something must be in the boxed in section which of course is tiled. Well, today we couldn`t take it anymore just hearing a poor creature that could be trapped so we decided to try to gain access into the pipe as a first form of attack (see picture) as I lifted the cut piece away a small beak from a Starling poked out and it proceeded to fly around the bathroom and out of the open window to freedom. I don`t suppose any other starlings are going to want it to roost near him/her tonight though :-)I suppose on Christmas eve it might have been foolish but we do have three toilets in the house and it`s the season of good will to all men which in Anne and my terms also includes animals. I made a couple of tabs up and refitted the cut out and applied white bathroom sealant and job done.