Nests destroyed by tree falling
Marcel Tetrault
Comox Valley Echo
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
CREDIT:
Two small blue eggs appear almost undisturbed but for the tiny cracks in their shells. This nest appears to have landed right next to the stump of the tree in which it had likely been placed by the egg's Robin parents.
Work to keep the power flowing into local homes has had the unintended side effect of killing several unborn baby birds.
Several trees that were getting too close to the power lines on Powerhouse Road were felled last week and, in the process, one of the neighbours found several bird nests lying broken on the ground.
"I bet you a lot of them went right through the chipper," said Michelle Bradshaw.
"All those trees, even the dead trees, are going to be full of nests. I don't understand why they waited until spring. They're so full of animals."
Right next to the corner of her driveway, a small robin nest sits with two small blue eggs, cracked and broken. Bradshaw found one bird mother wandering around chirping, looking desperately for her home and her babies.
"My kids are so upset," she said.
B.C. Hydro spokesperson Stephen Watson said that the work is part of the company's year-round vegetation management program, in which trees are pruned or removed both for public safety reasons and for hydro reliability.
He said that the crews contracted to do the work have the option to skip trees with nests and then return to prune or remove the trees after the birds have fledged. He said that for the current work, there were three cases in which nests were found and crews bypassed the trees.
"In this case, unfortunately it was missed," he said, referring to the nests found by Bradshaw.
The tree pruning and removal goes along year-round, so it is just coincidence that it happens to have occurred along Powerhouse Road in the spring this year.
"We just go along the circuit and move along until that whole circuit is completed," said Watson.
The management program has a four-year cycle, so crews will not visit the area again until 2012. The work along the road, he said, has been completed for this cycle.
© Comox Valley Echo 2008
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