Dancing starling spectacle caused power cuts in Scottish village (2020) • Hacker News Board

Re: Dancing starling spectacle caused power cuts in Scottish village (2020)

#21

Post by smcl » Thu, Jun 09, 2022, 7:14 PM UTC

henearkr wrote: post #17

smcl wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There aren't any trees in that particular field, but Airth isn't exactly in a barren treeless wasteland - there are pockets of woodland around the village: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Airth,+Falkirk,+UK/@56.067...

Right, fair enough, but if there were trees regularly everywhere, there would be no huge tree-less (but powerline-ful) area, and between a weird chair-powerline and a nice chair-tree, I guess the choice is easy for a bird. I mean, if there were _neither_ any power lines, the starlings would certainly sit a bit further, but there _are_ powerlines (i.e. chairs), so here they are. (did you notice, I'm trying to think bi…

I did! Good job. But for me the weird thing is that it’s a pretty typical landscape outside the cities in the Scottish central belt so it’s weird this has just happened here

Re: Dancing starling spectacle caused power cuts in Scottish village (2020)

#22

Post by filoeleven » Fri, Jun 10, 2022, 3:51 AM UTC

AlexandrB wrote: post #19

I absolutely adore starlings. I used to work across from a wild meadow. In the fall starlings would gorge on some kind of berries from the meadow and then sit on the power lines on my side of the street. The result: a several hundred meter long line of pink bird poop on the sidewalk. What always amazed me is how their takeoffs and landings seem synchronized. One second they're sitting on the power line chattering at…

I hate starlings.

I am in the US. Some prick decided to bring about 100 of them to Central Park NYC in 1890 because he liked Shakespeare, and Shakespeare mentioned them a few times in his plays.

They are an invasive species in the US, and that’s a problem. They are also horrifically screechy, which is where my hatred comes from. I’ve heard them sing some quite pleasant songs now and then—is this what they do more in their natural habitat? In my city, they mostly scream aggressively all day.

I have never hunted animals, but if I knew how to legally kill starlings in my city, I would start tomorrow.

Re: Dancing starling spectacle caused power cuts in Scottish village (2020)

#23

Post by floyd_b » Sun, Jun 12, 2022, 2:07 AM UTC

Angostura wrote: post #3

> He said the firm would work with RSPB Scotland to find ways to discourage the birds from the power lines. Or just maybe install some plastic spacing rods in the effected stretch to prevent the wires clashing.

How would these work?