I'm no electrician but I think large bats tend to roost on wires, holding
onto more than one wire and it is the connecting between wires (or through
the animal) that causes the problem. Birds tend to only simultaneously
connect with one wire (fortunately).
-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Wren <>
To: Birding-aus <>
Date: Monday, 13 March 2000 22:11
Subject: Pelican causes power blackout.
>The following news item appeared in the Bowen Independent 8 March 2000
>
>A Pelican was killed early Wednesday morning when it flew into power lines
>near Dalrymple Point, blacking out electricity services to about 800 homes
>and businesses.
>An Ergon Energy spokesman said the bird hit the line at 3.15am causing two
>main lines to hit together and then crash to the ground. The site of the
>accident took an emergency crew about 45 minutes to locate and power was
>restored to 600 of the affected homes shortly after.
>The remaining 200 homes had power back on by 7am.
>The spokesman said there had been no reports of damage due to the blackout.
>Pelicans flying into wires was an unusual occurrence in the local area with
>only a handful of instances during the past few years, he said. End.
>
>Visitors to North Queensland should recall seeing the Flying Foxes tangled
>in the overhead power lines, the cause of the great majority of blackouts.
>First instance I know of involving a Pelican.
>
>Jon Wren
>PO Box 868
>Bowen Queensland 4805
>Australia
>Visit www.bowen.qld.gov.au
>Ph. 07 4786 2614
>Mobile 0412 789 285 email:
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to
>
>Include ONLY "unsubscribe birding-aus"
>in the message body (without the quotes)
>
To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to
Include ONLY "unsubscribe birding-aus"
in the message body (without the quotes)
|
