Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Powerline bird deaths....

[quote=Jim_Conrad]Wrong.
Only coyotes and wind turbines kill birds.[/quot

And many people responding to this thread think that in this discussion power lines means wind turbines.

If you have never seen a squirrel buy it on a powerline, it's worth adding to your bucket list.

I was gazing out the window of my office many years ago. I noticed a gray squirrel walking along the power line on the next street down. He hopped onto the transformer and the next thing I knew, there was an orange incandescent ball of plasma, about basketball size. A half-second later came the report. I felt it through the glass.

Yowzah!

All that was left was a small flurry of what looked like snow coming down from the pole.

We had a racoon go into the transformer outside work a number of years ago. I was behind two steel doors and a cubicle wall. It took out the electricity in half the plant and the report was considerably louder than a squirrel. We had to send the second shift home.

Back when I was working at the power company in Scumsuck, a few dudes went into the nearby substation and tried to steal copper, armed with metal-handled pruning shears. That report must have been tremendous, but that happened 3rd shift. I was home at the time.

Self-project much?

Isn't that putting the cart before the egg? Or some such?

Turbines require transmission lines...

Have you watched the video where the lineman does maintenance on live transmission lines? Crawling around on them…..with the electrical drain stick?

One set of powerlines from one reactor, due to scale and voltage would eliminate the need for a huge number of turbines, solar screens, tiny hydro projects, and more... and their accompanying grid. And your point is?

Electricity probably isn’t killing them.

Could be anything…..possibly toxic (to them) cable sheathing……or other outside factors.

Find it very hard to believe birds are poached in any substantial numbers.

I still am a bit confused as to what nerves I unintentionally contacted. My point was that the initial post was addressing birds that were shot as opposed to ones that had been electrocuted by power lines would provide people an opening to jump all over wind turbines, even though they threaten the extinction of all bird life by physical contact rather than electrocution.

If something doesn’t seem quite right, it usually isn’t.

Apologies, no excuse.

Oh, now I get it.

Again, apologies.

Local small time rural power lines….run 7200V phase to neutral here….to transformers. Possible zap on primary side connection.

110/220V (X,Z,Y legs) from transformer…..slightly more possible for animal problems on secondary side.

Blame shifting, for whatever reason.

We don't have any rabbits or quail anymore because of the predator birds I wouldn't mind more of them getting fried.

Stray cats and loss of habitat don't help but a large reduction in raptors wouldn't bother me any.

Yep,

that's 100% of the cause of rabbit and quail population crashes.

100%

Came home to no power a couple weeks back. A beefy Morris type tabby was beneath the pole with the blown fuse.

Not found any birds out there though.

The whole assertion that bird kills from power lines are from electrocution seems quite odd. I've seen ravens buy it when landing on a power pole / transformer, and it's impressive.

Also typically knocks at least one leg out, and then you've got to call the power company, again. And the stupid ravens smell when fried.

Long way of saying that bird strikes are far, far more prevalent that electrocutions.

Again, smell test.

Dutch, a good proportion of our rural service lines, not the long distance transmission one but the ones on the wooden poles, have covers over the wires for a couple of feet on either side of the pole. I'm assuming it's to keep the numerous raptors from getting zapped.

Some of them out by our place don't have them though, so I guess this guy could be in danger?