Andrew wrote:
On 18/12/2020 13:34, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:
On 18/12/2020 13:15, NY wrote:
"Andrew" wrote in message
...
If they were migrating geese then there could be
some free roasted xmas dinners :-).

Perhaps those 11Kv lines are a bit too 'saggy' though ?.
How would they stay apart during high winds, which
are expected in that part of the country ?..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...ntral-55334891

That was my thought: if the starlings landing and taking off stretch
and
swing the wires so much that they touch, even in cold weather when the
heat hasn't made them expand, then a gale could do the same. The wires
need to be tightened.

It was a hell of a lot of starlings on each wire. Individually they may
not weigh much but on those numbers and all acting in synchrony they
must be well beyond normal design tolerances.

Our local mains in the village is three phase aluminium core wrapped
around a steel hawser. It proved strong enough to support most of the
weight of a tree. The recoil when the tree was cut free was spectacular!

All the poles in the village are now banana shaped with "do not climb"
warning stickers on them.

Would insulating them to prevent this actually cost a lot?


Yes. Only an idiot or a socialist would even consider it.

The air gap *is* the insulation. The wires look too saggy.

There's only so much tension you can apply to lines,
without the lines failing. They're not intended to be
strung like guitar strings. The tension is somewhat
irrelevant if the stretch was in a straight line,
but when the transmission curves gently across terrain,
there need to be guy wires to counteract the forces
involved.

When a line touches the ground, now it's too loose :-)

"Suggested Practices for Avian Protection On Power Lines"

https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1224/ML12243A391.pdf

Making the crossarms a bit wider might help.
Maybe the next time they replace all the poles, they
could change the crossarm design.

Paul