I used to sweep from the roof down, now I go bottom up after a pigeon flew out of a flue in Gary, Indiana
Used to drop my brush from the top for 5 years until a bird exploded out of the stack and scared me off a ladder. Now I always start at the smoke shelf and work up, so am I the only one who made a change like this after a bird incident?
Had a chimney swift come screaming out of a flue in a house outside South Bend back in 2019 and I about went off the roof. Since then I run the rods up from the smoke shelf too, and I won't touch a stack now without a light and a mirror first.