Great horned owl electrocuted

The owl pictured above tumbling back to earth, still clutching its last meal, made a fatal error recently when it perched on a Central Electric Cooperative (CEC) power pole #126867 located in a wildlife easement under the stewardship of Ron and Jolynn Lambert.

A pole to perch on and eat a freshly caught gray squirrel is all the owl was interested in; whether it was in a wildlife easement, or carrying 7,200 volts of electrical energy didn't matter. It wasn't until he was careless, and touched two of the wires, that the awesome electrical energy in the line ended his life at almost the speed of light.

"I see a lot of that sort of thing happening to great horned owls, especially in spring," Jon Paxton, CEC serviceman said, as he pried the owl off the fuse block on the top of the pole.

Unfortunately this is an all-too-common tragedy, but it is not the fault of CEC; they spend a lot of time and money trying to make poles safe for raptors. The bottom line is that the Sisters area requires a great deal of electricity to pump water, keep homes warm, families cooking meals, power for electronic devices and lighting. Distribution of all that energy requires transmission lines and poles to support them; it is unfortunate that occasionally an owl, hawk or eagle runs afoul of the needs of Man.

It is impossible to check all the poles, but with your help at reporting raptor electrocutions, CEC will eventually cure the problem.

The raptor safety project carried out on poles near the Lazy Z ranch is a typical example of how hard CEC works to protected our natural resources. An adult American bald eagle was recently observed attempting to land on the power pole across from the Lazy Z barn, but when it saw the triangle "excluders" on the cross-arms it veered off and went to perch in the cottonwood across the field. Chances are, even if it had landed on the top of the excluder it would have been safe anyway because of the insulators fastened to the wires on the cross-arm.

When a raptor electrocution takes place CEC responds with protection, usually within hours. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service makes sure they do, but it is also a high priority on the part of CEC to get the job done, and as quickly as possible; sometimes a raptor electrocution causes a disruption to electrical distribution that can cost a lot of money to correct.

The power poles along the big pivot irrigated fields between Sisters and Bend, adjacent to Highway 20, are also equipped with insulators that make it safe for hawks and owls that perch on them as they look over the hay fields for gophers.

Thankfully, we have a very good population of great horned owls in the vicinity, so one electrocution will not harm them overall. And we can rest assured, if Jon Paxton and CEC have anything to do with it, pole 126867 will never electrocute another owl or other raptor.

It will have insulators installed to eliminate that possibility.