Woodpeckers damage electricity poles (1 Viewer)

Kits · Aug 25, 2017

Woodpeckers drilling holes in electricity poles have been blamed for damaging 6,000 posts in the past year.
The birds are mistaking poles in East Anglia and south-east England for trees, UK Power Networks said.
Woodpeckers often return to the same spot so the escalating damage can result in power cuts or the need to replace the posts.
The utility company is testing a wood filler containing a scent that repels the birds.

Article here

Andy Adcock · Aug 25, 2017

Kits said:
The birds are mistaking poles in East Anglia and south-east England for trees, UK Power Networks said.

Forgive my facetiousness but, the poles are trees or were so it's not an totally astounding error from the birds?

A

Xenospiza · Aug 25, 2017

The better solution would be to put the wires underground like in a developed country or to use concrete poles instead. A scent that repels woodpeckers sounds like nonsense to me.

In South America, you'll only ever see White Woodpecker on electricity poles.

Kits · Aug 25, 2017

andyadcock said:
Forgive my facetiousness but, the poles are trees or were so it's not an totally astounding error from the birds?

A

I thought that too, Andy.

fugl · Aug 26, 2017

Interesting thread. When I was growing up in the Bay Area (California), it was common to see telephone poles densely riddled from top to bottom with acorn storage holes, there being several such "granaries" in my (then) pre-Silicon Valley quasi-rural neighborhood. The granaries were the work of extended Acorn Woodpecker families which harvested and stored the acorns in the fall to live on over the winter. The woodpeckers also sometimes dug nesting/roosting holes in the poles; these were often deep enough to threaten the latters' structural integrity and thus to rouse the wrath of the telephone company.

Here's a photo of an Acorn Woodpecker granary in a pine tree--
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fugl/20668517676/in/album-72157627235352777/

Nutcracker · Aug 26, 2017

What baffles me is why woodpeckers (apart from Fugl's case of Acorn Woodpeckers digging store holes) would go for poles. The poles are treated with tar or other preservatives to prevent wood-boring insects, so are sterile; one would expect the woodpeckers to see straight away (absence of any insect damage) that the poles don't contain any food and that they're wasting their time going on poles.

fugl · Aug 26, 2017

Nutcracker said:
What baffles me is why woodpeckers (apart from Fugl's case of Acorn Woodpeckers digging store holes) would go for poles. The poles are treated with tar or other preservatives to prevent wood-boring insects, so are sterile; one would expect the woodpeckers to see straight away (absence of any insect damage) that the poles don't contain any food and that they're wasting their time going on poles.

But are they necessarily after food as opposed to digging nesting/roosting holes?

Hauksen · Aug 26, 2017

Hi Nutcracker,

Nutcracker said:
What baffles me is why woodpeckers (apart from Fugl's case of Acorn Woodpeckers digging store holes) would go for poles. The poles are treated with tar or other preservatives to prevent wood-boring insects, so are sterile; one would expect the woodpeckers to see straight away (absence of any insect damage) that the poles don't contain any food and that they're wasting their time going on poles.

From working with colleagues who had a past with a Telecom company, woodpecker-induced damage to poles was a reasonably common occurence, but from what I gathered, it were mostly older poles that were affected, so maybe the poles became only attractive once most of the protection had eroded. I'm not even sure they considered woodpecker damage as a problem by itself, it might just have been an indicator the pole was rotting away silently and should be replaced anyway.

Trying to treat a pole to lengthen its useful life might be a sensible idea to reduce maintenance cost of course, and if that's the idea, a woodpecker-repellent wood filler might help - if it works.

Regards,

Henning

Andy Adcock · Aug 26, 2017

fugl said:
But are they necessarily after food as opposed to digging nesting/roosting holes?

I remember when we were in Trinidad and Tobago, there were holes in nearly all telegraph poles and it was just a single species responsible, either Red-crowned or Red-rumped, can't remember which?

A

crapbirder · Aug 30, 2017

Kits said:
Woodpeckers drilling holes in electricity poles have been blamed for damaging 6,000 posts in the past year.
The birds are mistaking poles in East Anglia and south-east England for trees, UK Power Networks said.
Woodpeckers often return to the same spot so the escalating damage can result in power cuts or the need to replace the posts.
The utility company is testing a wood filler containing a scent that repels the birds.

Article here

Members of the woodpecker family are known to 'drum' on resonant objects, such as telegraph/power line poles, to communicate with others of their kind. Could this be part of the problem experienced not just in East Anglia and south-east England.

Woodpeckers damage electricity poles (1 Viewer)

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