No reason for anything like that to be down there, could it have washed down from the gutter where it was some sort of leaf guard ?

I have no idea. It's not familiar at all. Maybe someone has seen this before?

Here is a link that might be useful: 2 flickr pics

cant tell what that is from the pictures

Can't tell what it is from the photo but one thing is for sure,,,,,it don't belong there.

Could it be some kind of pressure testing device that was left down there
when the house was built?

It was a can of spray paint that got dropped down there during construction!

so. how did you get it out?

Funny how a scientist can study a picture of a planet from 200,000 miles away and find all sorts of rocks, stones, water ,martians etc. yet a photo from 4 feet cant see a can of spray paint!!!

Perhaps if we had looked in the pipe with one of those NASA satylite cameras we would have known it was spray paint, but then how many of us can afford one of those cameras?

On the other hand, do we really know they are seeing rocks, stones, water & martians or do we just assume that since they have a PHD and a gadzillion dollar camera they must be right?