IT’S NOT wind or torrential rain or indeed a terror attack that could potentially bring down West Coast power lines, causing untold devastation – it is a flock of ‘pesky’ woodpeckers which is threatening to pull the plug on household and business electricity.
The boldly-patterned migratory birds, with their chisel-like bills, are chipping away ‘day and night’ at electricity poles – with Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution (SSE) having to take urgent remedial action to help keep the lights on.
Great spotted woodpeckers are skilled at drilling away at the poles in a short period of time, leaving them unstable and liable to fall over, or loosen power cables in even the slightest wind or inclement weather. The woodpeckers are causing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage between Oban and Kilmelford as workers try to beat ‘Woody Woodpecker’ in replacing poles before the elusive birds bring down the entire power network.