By Jeff
Yesterday morning (Sunday May 9) I heard a strange flapping sound coming from the utility pole in our backyard. I looked closer and saw a pigeon stuck by its foot from a piece of string. It was flapping around, hanging upside down and struggling greatly.
I figured it was the end of the road for the bird, but I called SCE to make a report just to say I tried. Two hours later a SCE lineman showed up!!
I showed him the bird and he got a really long telescoping pole that could reach the bird. He very carefully pushed and pulled for about 10 minutes and finally freed the bird, who took off like a cannon and never even said “Thank You”!
The picture below is post rescue – that’s pretty high. The bird was at the very top. The rescue pole had to extend over 50′ and he worked it totally by hand. The tip looked like a Swiss Army knife. It had a little saw, a hook, and a pointed tip. They probably use these poles to cut down tennis shoes and those nasty metallic balloons.
A lot of people complain about our utility companies, SCE in particular. I want to put out a Very Big Thank You to SCE for responding and letting the little “winged rat” fly off to poop on more windshields!
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People, get a grip. The SCE intervention was almost certainly to avoid the bird’s situation from devolving into a electrical short or worse of the local grid. They need to constantly monitor the wires to keep us all safe. (Nice that the bird got away of course.)