We've been enjoying the spectacle of watching a spotted woodpecker carving out a home for itself inside a telegraph pole in the adjoining field. He's very industrious, and has been at it now with a large hammering noise for four days, and now has a considerable cave in the heart of the pole.
He can disappear from view completely, works away hidden inside, and then emerges, presumably to go off to get some food.
The only worry however is that the pole carries 11,000 volt wires, and also the transformer that supplies our house via lower-voltage wires. The woodpecker is quite large, about the size of a blackbird, and can obviously turn tound inside the pole. Wondering just how much structural wood is now left, I rang the power distributors. They sent two men out next day, but without a ladder (!) there was nothing they could do except confirm that their pole was being eaten by a woodpecker, and they would probably send another team with some expanding foam to fill the hole.
Presumably they are exempt from the law about disturbing nesting birds, in the interests of maintaining electricity suplies. But I do wonder about the repair method. You wouldn't repair a boat's mast just by squirting in builder's filler.
|
|
Network Electricity or whatever they are called must use storms as pole testers, no point in changing one that is OK. Bean counters replacement policy.
|
Woodpeckers aren't know to fell trees, which carry greater loads than a telegraph pole and suffer greater strain in storms, so I would expect the pole will manage just fine.
animalquestions.org/birds/woodpeckers/do-woodpeckers-kill-trees/
Last edited by: Lygonos on Wed 27 Apr 16 at 17:42
|
>> . Bean counters replacement policy.
Worse than anything you could possibly imagine when within a regulated industry.
|
Fascinating things Telegraph Poles
We at the Telegraph Appreciation Society are always on the look out for new members
I'll put your name forward if you like.
www.telegraphpoleappreciationsociety.org/37-photos/slideshow/58-alluring-telegraph-poles
|
How interesting - it sounds a good candidate for HIGNFY.
I see members enjoy climbing the poles - not a good idea perhaps if carrying high voltage power lines.
It's not the first time our pole has been under attack. A few years ago a herd of cows used to enjoy rubbing against the cable supports. They uprooted the cables and wobbled the pole so much our wires twanged and caused the lights to flicker.
But we haven't yet had wild boar, deer or beavers.
|
We get them here.
Haven't heard their machine-gunning yet this year. Very rapid fire, Schmeisser sort of thing.
|
We get a fair number of green woodpeckers here; much bigger birds, closer in size to a crow. They had a hole in the big old ash tree in next door's garden; we could see into it from our upstairs windows. They like dead and dying trees because all sorts of edible beetle larvae live in the soft wood, but they actually do a lot of their pecking on the ground, as rooks do, looking for leatherjackets.
Sadly the tree was taken down last year. Dangerous, apparently, rotten at the base or something. Great shame. Still see the birds but don't know where they nest now.
|
>> How interesting
Hope you found the link to "World of Pallets". Wales' best tourist attraction.
www.b5105.com/pallets.htm
" Just off the B5105"
|
"We at the Telegraph Appreciation Society ......"
As an ex-pro, I despair of people who can't be assed to distinguish between telegraph (telephone) poles and electric poles.
|
I would refer you to the disclaimer
"It is often pointed out to us that half of the photos we show on this website are, in fact, electricity distribution poles. But as we say on the front page :
"We don't care what the wires contain either. They all carry electricity in some way be it the sparky stuff which boils your kettle, or the thinner stuff with your voice in it when you're on the phone"
If you were to stop Joseph and Mary Public in the street, point them at either an electricity DP or an aged GPO pole and ask "What is that?" 99.9% of the time, I am sure, you will hear the answer "A telegraph pole". And it is on that premise that this site operates.
That and the fact that all wire-carrying wooden poles, as far as I am concerned, have an essence of whimsical poetry all of their own. There they stand, silent sentinels, forever observing us who scurry about beneath them, oblivious. I'll get my coat."
|
>>"That and the fact that all wire-carrying wooden poles, as far as I am concerned, have an essence of whimsical poetry all of their own. There they stand, silent sentinels, forever observing us who scurry about beneath them, oblivious. I'll get my coat."
I rather like that.
|
" the disclaimer"
Yes - I had read that. I admit, I am a bit snooty about this subject having spent about 10 years of my life (post my main career) criss-crossing East Anglia, on foot, auditing power-lines.
|
Bright spark you.
Did Vince Cable do the same job?
|
From my youthful experience of climbing telegraph poles, I can assure you that it's the wires that hold the poles up rather than the other way round.
As long as there's no sideways force, such as at a corner on an electric line, the pole's just there to keep the wires at a height.
If a telephone pole has wires radiating all round then it's rock solid. If the wires just go in one direction then you can see the pole bend alarmingly. A pole with no wires is like a whip - I've been up one and snipped the only wire and damn near got catapulted off!
Poles used to have creosote applied in a pressure container to ensure the stuff got into the wood as deeply as possible. I'm surprised the woodpecker hasn't succumbed to poisoning.
|
"I'm surprised the woodpecker hasn't succumbed to poisoning."
In my experience, woodpecker damage to poles was really quite rare - and only on very old poles where, I guess, the creosote had been 'weathered' out. I recall coming across one in the S Cambs/W Norfolk area and the top of the pole had been honeycombed by woodpeckers. I was passing through an orchard at the time, and mentioned it to a couple a couple of chaps who were in there pruning trees. They had observed that the devious local woodpeckers had discovered that if they hammered onto the metal plates on the poles, they could make a louder noise which I believe is a territorial thing.
My involvement with the power-network was to audit the work done by tree-cutters to check that they were cutting to the specified clearance appropriate for the voltage of the line.
For anyone interested in the origins of the national grid, this was an an excellent series
youtu.be/iAGiJroS1iI
|
After warnings that our power would be turned off for a day, a team arrived a few days ago and replaced the pole.
They have left the old pole lying by the hedge, and I have inspected the hole.
The pole is 8" diameter at that point, and the internal cavity measures just over 7" across.
It is about 12" deep - spacious accommodation for two adult woodpeckers and their brood.
|
You spoilsport you! :-)
I can just imagine Mr Woodpecker turning to Mrs Woodpecker: "Oi Mildred, some oik has nicked our 'ouse!"
|
zippy, do draw that as a cartoon - it's absolutely perfect for something like Punch from 1894. I love it.
|
Woodpeckers and telegraph poles - Old Navy
