2018

The most comprehensive research on bird mortality resulting from collisions with power lines has been performed in USA and Canada, where the number of bird deaths reach 50 million each year. In Europe, research on bird collisions to overhead power lines (other than distribution lines) started back in the late 1960s. Already then, frequent occurrences of such collisions were recorded, and the number of bird deaths in, for example, bogged-up areas of Netherlands was 700 cases per one kilometre annually, and the number of collisions exceed- ed a million. Over a million bird deaths per year were also recorded in France. In West Germany, over 500 killed white storks were recorded in the course of 40 years, which represents a significant proportion of the population of this species in the country. And this is statistics for only few European countries. Unfortunately, we did not have any research done on this issue in Lithuania until now. However, the relevance of the problem in our country was revealed by the situations in locations often visited by people and characterised by abundance of birds, for example, Nemunas River area in Kaunas. Our country is rather rich in such places where there is abundance of birds at certain times with power lines running above. Bird deaths resulting from short circuit requires a separate discussion. On the other hand, many are surprised to see white storks, ravens hatching on high-voltage power lines, and in the nests of the latter often settle kestrels or other falcons. In foreign countries, one can even observe nests of ospreys on such supports, and they are considered extinct in our country. Therefore, the necessity arises not only to protect such nests, which often can disturb electricity supply, but also to adapt respectively the high-voltage electricity transmission line poles by installing artificial nests. It is a widely used practice in many European countries, however, it is quite new in Lithuania.