Safety measures coming to eagles’ perches

HARPER - Responding to the electrocution in March of one of the world-famous Decorah eagles, Alliant Energy is installing additional wildlife safety equipment on utility poles and electric lines near the scene of the accident.

'We are trying to look out for wildlife across the state, trying to make sure our equipment is as safe as possible,” said Alliant spokesman Justin Foss.

Alliant crews began their effort Monday morning with the very pole, between Harper and Keota in Keokuk County, beneath which the deceased eagle was found.

'I'm really glad they are retrofitting that pole and others in the area,” said Bob Anderson, director of the Decorah-based Raptor Resource Project, whose web-based nest cam has enabled millions of viewers to bond with the eagle parents and their offspring.

The company describes the four electric lines running along the north side of 190th Street as primary lines, typical of those seen in much of rural Iowa. They consist of aluminum strands that conduct the electricity and steel strands for strength and support.

Foss said the poles that carry just the four lines are not considered especially dangerous.

'We are focusing our efforts on about a dozen poles that have transformers and other additional equipment” that increase the risk to birds perching on the wires or the crossarms to which the wires are attached, he said.

The crews are installing triangular plastic devices on the crossarms to discourage perching and sections of plastic insulation on the wires themselves to decrease the likelihood of a bird contacting two charged wires at once.

Foss said birds can perch on one charged wire with little risk.

'They do it every day - millions of them,” he said.

Keokuk and Washington counties were not considered a traditional eagle wintering area until the proliferation of hog confinement buildings began to provide a steady diet of dead baby pigs - a favorite eagle food, according to Foss.

Anderson said he observed between 500 and 1,000 eagles in the area in early March when he retrieved the electrocuted eagle - the fourth offspring of the world-famous parents to suffer that fate.

In both 2012 and 2014, two of the three eagles fledged at the Decorah nest were electrocuted.

Anderson and Brett Mandernack, manager of the Eagle Valley Nature Preserve near Glen Haven, Wis., conducted a post-mortem exam that confirmed the eagle was electrocuted.

Anderson said the three eaglets hatched this spring are healthy and growing rapidly.

The parents mated before the 2008 nesting season and have since hatched 23 chicks.

Their nest can be viewed on the KCRG-TV9 Eagle Cam