I know that it's not a good idea for anyone or anything to touch two
powerlines at once, but isn't it also the case that if you touch one cable
in two places simultaneously sufficiently far apart you create an arc, and
the result is the same as touching two?
The only birds that are big enough to do this are Black Swans and Pelicans
(they have to touch with eg two wing-tips when wings are extended). In
about 1992 I was talking to a birdwatcher down near the Brisbane Port and
it turned out that he was an electrician; I've forgotten his name, but he
was telling me how they had to hang buoys on all the powerlines down to the
Port because of the pelicans (not humanitarian motives, but financial ones,
every time the Port was blacked out it cost $1000s).
In Namadgi National Park here in the ACT there are powerlines with buoys
on, but I suspect this is for the benefit of hang-gliders and their pilots,
rather than birds.
John Leonard
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
John Leonard (Dr),
PO Box 243,
Woden, ACT 2606,
Australia
http://www.spirit.net.au/~jleonard
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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