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The mystery surrounding a series of unexplained power outages in a small town in Scotland was solved after a video revealed the culprits: starlings dancing on power lines.
Bird murmurs are believed to be behind the bewildering spate of evening blackouts in Airth, their combined mass bouncing off overhead power lines and causing power to skyrocket.
His antics were discovered by Neil McDonald, a chief engineer for Scottish Power, who had been perplexed by the inexplicable outages after regular checks on airlines. He solved the mystery after going out to investigate power lines on a night walk and used a camera phone to capture the show for his colleagues.
“In all my 14 years working for SP power grids, I have never seen anything like it. Even though all the birds looked small, the large number of them caused the wires to bounce up and down as they danced and faded, ”he said.
Thousands of birds weighed on the lines each time they landed en masse, he explained. The murmur would explode in unison, causing the lines to collide and trigger an interruption.
“There are actually three wires between those poles and when they collide, the power goes out for about 10 seconds or so each time. That is what has been happening quite often, and some of these clashes caused more extensive damage and longer cuts, ”he said.
About 50 local homes were mysteriously left without power for minutes at a time, with no explanation for the cause of the temporary blackouts.
Ross Galbraith, Scottish Power District Manager, said: “There have been several unexplained blackouts at dusk in recent weeks but given the work we have been doing to make sure our network is resilient before winter we were unable to get to the bottom until now.
“We are already ‘storm ready’ for the months to come and have been working very hard this year to improve the resilience of supplies in this particular area as well. Without a doubt, this is a new challenge in that regard.
“But now that we’ve discovered what our feathered friends have been up to, we can work with the appropriate experts to keep the lights on and the energy flowing to those who live nearby.”
Scottish Power’s power networks division plans to work with conservationists at RSPB to investigate how they might deter starlings from including overhead power lines in their nightly dance.
“It’s completely awesome to watch, although it’s not something we’ve experienced before,” McDonald said.
“We have been successful in advancing geese roosting in the past, so we hope our starling community can be encouraged to safely relocate somewhere that doesn’t impact our energy sources and local communities as much. “.
Toby Wilson, an RSPB Conservation Officer, said: “Obviously, we recognize the need to maintain power grids and hope that birds can be encouraged to move to a suitable nearby site.
“Unfortunately, starling murmurs are becoming increasingly rare, as starling numbers have suffered severe declines in recent decades due to habitat loss and changes in agricultural techniques that affect food supply.”
