WALK #57

Birds are no small matter. Flying wild animals can trip utility lines and, in worst cases, create wildfires. This can happen when an electrocuted bird falls to the ground and, with ground being drought-dry nowadays, spark a fire. It also happens as follows:

A bird can rest on one wire with no problem. But touching two wires simultaneously or touching one wire and a piece of grounded equipment, such as a transformer, can cause trouble.

“When electrocutions happen, it’s not unusual for the water in the animal cells to be instantly turned to steam,” said James Dwyer, a wildlife biologist also at E.D.M. International and a co-author of the paper. “It explodes the cells, and it’ll blow off a limb.”

--from "How An Electrocuted Bird Might Start a Wildfire" by Carolyn Wilke, The New York Times, June 29, 2022

It's the zeitgeist that when I see a bird perched on a utility wire nowadays, the above is what comes to mind. I used to just wave cheerfully at them. C'est la vie.

No Small Matter in Wildfire Country

May birds forever

soar against

sky,

their trails as

joyous as

I

hope our community

will be

forever.