Cape Town - If birds won’t eat carrots to make them see better in the dark – like British fighter pilots supposedly did during World War II – some other way must be found to stop them flying into powerlines at night, usually with devastating consequences.
Actually, the carrot story was a ruse to try and hide the successful development of radar from the Germans. Now, a different invention could give the birds the kind of key advance warning that radar provided the war-time flyers.
This is the world’s first nocturnal LED (light emitting diode) bird mitigation device that has just been fitted to powerlines on a farm near Kroonstad in the Free State as an experiment.
It was done in terms of a partnership between the Wildlife and Energy Programme of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), Eskom and international designer, manufacturer and supplier Preformed Line Products. The devices are a combination of the basic “bird flapper”and “bird flight diverter” concepts already in place on some powerlines, but they are also now equipped with a solar panel which powers flashing LED lights throughout the night to try and prevent mortalities of those bird species known to fly in the dark, the trust explains in a media release.
“Through the years Eskom and the EWT have worked together to reduce the number of wildlife mortalities on Eskom’s (power) infrastructure across South Africa,” programme manager Constant Hoogstad said.
“One of the major impacts identified over the years was the collision of water birds, such as flamingos, with powerlines. These bird species often fly at dawn, dusk and after dark, making them prone to collision with powerlines.”
Both Greater Flamingos and Lesser Flamingos are found in most regions of South Africa and eastern southern Africa, and both species are considered near-threatened.
One of the areas where Greater Flamingos were noted to be particularly affected by powerlines was on a farm called Rooihoogte, 30km outside Kroonstad, Hoogstad said. Over the past three years more than 50 flamingos had collided with lines on this property. Although the lines had been fitted with diurnal anti-collision devices, they proved ineffective at night. So the partnership fitted the first nocturnal LED solar-charged devices to these powerlines as an experiment.
“The site will be monitored to establish its effectiveness and, if the devices prove to be successful, we hope to integrate them in other parts of the country in order to continue to reduce the mortality rate of large water birds.”
Cape Times