FortisBC says it is upgrading a power line in the South Okanagan after two young owls were fatally electrocuted last month.
Oliver resident Donald Lawlor said he and nearby neighbors were devastated on May 9th when the two fledglings were killed while trying to learn to fly.
Lawlor said the fledglings were on a power pole, about to fly back to their nest, when one of them touched an exposed wire.
Global News reached out to Lawlor, who asked FortisBC to bird-proof its power lines.
On Wednesday, FortisBC spoke to Global News.
“What we’re doing on an ongoing basis is adding bird-proofing and protection against wildlife on our system,” said FortisBC communications advisor Nicole Brown.
“If we do know there is an area at risk, we will take precautions in that instance. We do have a lot of legacy equipment on our system and we would be replacing that on an ongoing basis.”
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Brown says Fortis maintains more than 4,000 km of power lines across its service territory.
“As we maintain that system year after year, we’re always adding more animal wildlife proofing on an ongoing basis,” said Brown.
“We cover everything where there’s a known risk. People will see things, like conical shapes over our structures, they’ll see maybe spirals over some of our structures. People may not realize just how much wildlife protection is in place.”
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FortisBC also took Global News on a local tour, showing what they’re doing to protect birds, including an osprey relocation program.
The program includes building platforms so ospreys can safely nest.
“This keeps them off our infrastructure,” said Roxanne Tripp, environmental program lead with FortisBC. “As you can imagine, it’s not good for osprey to be on live infrastructure.
“It’s not good for the osprey, it’s also not good for our infrastructure or our reliability to provide power.”
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Tripp added, “if they are trying to nest on our live infrastructure, we will provide them with a pole and a platform. And if there is a nest already built, we will move it over to that platform.”
Lawlor recalled when the owls moved into the neighbourhood.
“When they first came in and settled in the tree, they moved into a nest,” said Donald Lawlor. “So it was just the two adults.
“A few weeks later, some little balls of fluff popped up; the fledglings. They grew and grew until, finally, one of them hopped out of the nest. They started walking around the branches.”
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Lawlor added that many neighbors would come to watch the owls.
“A lot of people knew about them and were interested in them and were watching them,” said Lawlor, adding the fledlings were “like little kids when they were playing on the branches.
“They were growing, so they were evolving, getting stronger wings, being able to move around the tree.”
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According to Lawlor, following days of getting ready for flight by flapping their wings, the fledglings were called over to the pole by the mother owl.
“The first day, none of them came,” said Lawlor. “Second day, after three or four hours, one of them tried, but he crash landed on the roof. But he managed to take off to a cypress on the other side of the road.
“After another couple of hours, he managed to make it to the top of the power pole. Finally, the other bird made it directly to the power pole.”
A while later, tragedy struck.
Lawlor said the two fledglings and the mother fell to the ground. The fledglings were dead while the mother survived.
He said power was affected and FortisBC showed up, restored power and took the two dead fledglings away.
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Lawlor noted the two adult owls tried calling for the fledglings, with the father owl hunting down a mouse, then calling for the fledglings from a nearby roof.
“I think he knew at that time they were dead,” said Lawlor. “Maybe it was a ritual where he was just bringing a mouse as a present. I don’t know.”
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