Another Decorah eagle electrocuted by a utility pole

A Decorah eagle was electrocuted last week - the fourth offspring of the world-famous parents to suffer that fate, the Raptor Resource Project announced Sunday.

'It's Russian roulette when a bird lands on a pole supporting electricity transmission lines,” said Bob Anderson, director of the non-profit group.

Noting that two of the three eagles fledged at the Decorah nest in 2012 as well as in 2014 were electrocuted, Brett Mandernack, manager of the Eagle Valley Nature Preserve near Glen Haven, Wis., said: 'It's not good odds.”

The female eagle, hatched last year, was found dead beneath a utility pole between Keota and Harper in rural Keokuk County, the Raptor Resource Project said.

Anderson said he picked up the dead eagle on Thursday after a notice from a group monitoring the bird's satellite transmitter that a 'mortality ping” was recorded.

Anderson said he and Mandernack on Saturday conducted a post-mortem exam that confirmed electrocution as the cause of death.

Anderson said he forwarded photos of the suspect utility pole to a consultant, who deemed it unsafe and suggested ways to make it less dangerous for eagles and other wildlife.

Justin Foss, a spokesman for Alliant Energy, which owns the pole, said Alliant engineers who have studied the photos said 'everything appears to be in compliance.”

Anderson said he hopes the disconnect between Alliant's assessment and the assessment of his consultant, that the pole was extremely dangerous, can be resolved.

Foss said Alliant personnel would examine the pole later this week and identify corrective measures, if necessary.

'It's tricky because that part of the state has not been known for a lot of eagles, but that's changing” with the proliferation of hog confinement buildings, Foss said.

During his trip to recover the dead eagle, Anderson said he saw between 500 and 1,000 eagles, most of which were attracted to the carcasses of pigs left outside confinements to decompose.

Two Decorah eagles that hatched in 2012 were electrocuted that same year. A nest mate of the recently deceased eagle was electrocuted in July.

Anderson speculated that eagles hatched in urban and suburban settings, where utility poles are common, would be more inclined to roost on them than rural eagles, which are programmed to roost in trees.

With eagles increasingly nesting closer to people, Anderson said he believes electrocution will increasingly be a concern for urban-fledged eagles and utility companies.

Scores of the Raptor Resource Project's Facebook friends bemoaned the loss, and many expressed hope that utility companies will redouble efforts to improve the safety of their transmission lines.

ITC Midwest, which owns the transmission line that electrocuted the Decorah eagle last year, is engaged in mitigation efforts, according to spokesman Tom Petersen.

Petersen said the company installed 'swan diverters” on a half-mile section of line to increase the line's visibility and discourage bird contact.

The company also plans to install insulators on 27 poles to keep bird wings from contacting an energized line, he said.