Oncor Hearts Great Blue Herons

Here is a picture of Hank, the heron who fishes regularly outside of my house. Hank is a lovely bird, and he builds his nest high up in the trees or on a conveniently placed telephone or power line, which can be a problem if they bust the connection. Apparently Great Blue Herons are a huge hassle for Dallas-based Oncor. They monitor over 100,000 miles of power lines many of which are lined with heron nests. Read the jump to find out what they plan to do about it.

I thought you might like to learn more about a Great Blue Heron egg rescue planned for Monday in Abilene area.

Oncor and Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center  http://www.rogerswildlife.org/in Hutchins will rescue Great Blue Heron eggs from nests perched atop 120-foot towers supporting high-voltage power lines. The nests need to be removed to prevent power outages along the critical line. These are the lines that you see from the highway that look like lattice-work and have several lines hanging from cross arms.

Kathy Rogers, director, Rogers Wildlife, will be with Oncor representatives who will don a specially-designed backpack provided by Rogers. The climber will wear the backpack as he climbs the high-voltage transmission line tower, removes eggs from nests, places them inside the backpack, and returns to the ground. Rogers will take over from there–transporting the eggs to her center, raising the chicks and releasing them to the wild. Rogers Wildlife has helped Oncor rescue and rehabilitate more than 30 Great Blue Herons, a protected species under federal law, who tend to nest in our highest towers.

Once the eggs or chicks are safely in Rogers’ hands, Oncor removes nests to prevent power outages along critical lines. The power line will be hot, meaning it won’t be shut down, for the rescue.

Oh, to be in Abilene on Monday. Dang.