BIRDS ON POWER LINES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4935, 5 February 1926, Page 2

BIRDS ON POWER LINES.

BREAK CAUSED AT WAITOA.

DIFFICULTY TO CONTEND WITH.

A further cause of interruption to electric power supplies has presented itself to power boards. At Tuesday’s meeting of the Thames Vall'ey, Power Board, when disfcussing the recent interruptions to the supply, reference was made to a wire that had broken at Waitoa lately, the cause of which was- attributed to birds perching, on the line. The matter was duly reported to the Public Works Department, and the following letter was received from the electrical engineer : “In reference to your letter reporting a. broken wire at No. 7 Road, Waitoa, the cause of this, is given as ‘wind, and a heavy load of birds.’ Does) this mean that a large number of birds settled on the., wire ? If there is evidence that the weight of birds settling on .the wirei had caused it to break, I think this would be well worth recording, but it -seems, to me more likely that the birds would fly off as. soon as the wind caused the wire to swing.”

The board’s) engineer (Mr N. G. Mv; Leoc.) said that when the repair gang ivent out .to renew the line hundreds of starlings had been s,een swinging on the adjacent wire. In his opinion there was no doubt that the weight of the birds had caused the break. Mr P. Grace said that when he was in the Gordon district he had alsjo seen' starlings in hundreds on the power lines.

The chairman (Mr Claxton) inti-, mated that on one occasion when a line had broken twenty-five hawks had been found dead on the ground. A member, noted for making facetious remarks, said that it might be possible to place bird lime on the wires. However, the members did not take the suggestion seriously, but a broad smile was to be observed on Jhe face of the engineer.