Happy ending for extended magpie family
Woy Woy resident Ms Yvette Pritchard was appalled when dead magpies started to appear on her front lawn.
The cause was a pole-top transformer outside her house in Macleay Ave.
"The transformer power pole is a favourite perch for members of a large extended family of local magpies," she said.
The unfortunate magpies were perching in the wrong place on the high voltage transmission wires and suffered "a series of magpie deaths by electrocution", she said.
Ms Pritchard contacted Ausgrid about the problem.
After some initial resistance ("there's nothing we can do"), Ausgrid determined that the magpies had been inadvertently responsible for two recent power outages and agreed to fix the problem.
Ausgrid reconfigured and insulated the offending wires.
"The magpie story has had a happy ending," Ms Pritchard said.
SOURCE:
Email, 14 Mar 2023
Yvette Pritchard, Woy Woy