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| BFD - Bird Fight Deflectors |
My drive in to Alma, Wisconsin today was slowed by a bucket truck and a half dozen men working on the utility lines along the Great River Road by Rieck's Lake Park. They were installing little yellow metal coils.
"What are those coils for?" I asked the man in charge of the "slow/stop" sign.
"They're bird deflectors," he said as he waved me by.
It must have something to do with Rieck's Lake Park, famous as a stop-over for migrating waterfowl and cranes. When I got home, a quick search on the internet provided an explanation - and the good news. Turns out, it's an easy way to minimize bird-wire collisions.
Also known as bird flight diverters, these yellow wire coils are the one of several new products in bird-wire collision avoidance technology. The coils are a relatively economical way to make overhead wires, cables and guy wires more visible to birds, especially cranes and swans.
The utility wires along the Great River Road are a deadly hazard to the birds flying back and forth between the wetlands at Riecks Lake and the Missississippi River.
