814-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 11,1989
Readers
Write
Hi! My name is Ellen Brubaker.
I am 14 years-old. There are 10
children in our family: Pauline, 19;
Mark, 17; Florence, IS; Ellen, 14;
Martha, II; Steven. 9; Marion. 7;
Norman, S; Laura, 4; David, 2;
Dad (Walter), 33; and Mom
(Vera), 32.
We live on a farm. We have 2
cows, I calf, 3 horses, 20 big pigs.
10 baby pigs about 30 steers. 1
dog, 10 cats, 2 bams and 1 house.
We have a pond. We go swim
ming, skating and fishing. My sis
ter Pauline is a teacher in New
York. My other sister went to visit
her. I am in Bth grade. I will be out
of school next year. My mom was
filling the wash machine with hot
water, the hose busted and the
water hit her. She burned her hand
and down the front of her body.
For awhile, she did not help much
and did not go away.
We do not have home work
unless we are not done with our
work for the next day because we
have to help with the chores. I milk
the cows.
We go to a one room school. We
go to school with the school bus.
We drive a horse and buggy. We
do not have a TV or a radioftort we
have a telephone. We use tractors
in the fields. We have a big farm,
160 acres with a lot of woods. My
dad is putting in a new bathroom.
We have 36 pupils in school.
One day we took our lunches to
school, but we did not pack them.
When lunchtime came, we put up
our hands and said our lunch boxes
are empty. The teacher sure was
suprised. Then, one of the school
parents brought our lunches to
school. Our teacher’s name is
Esther Mae Hoover. I like school.
Ellen Brubaker
Kutztown
Hi! My name is Carol Martin. I
am seven-years-old. I have a dog.
Her name is Huffy. I have two sis
ters and three brothers.
I go to Penns Creek School.
There are six grades. I’m in second
grade. My twin brothers are in
third grade. Some of my class is on
the honor roll and I am too.
My daddy has 30 cows. One day
we went on a picnic and we went
on a walk in our woods. When we
came back, we saw bear tracks!
Last Sunday we got a baby calf.
Now, feeding the baby calf is my
brother’s job. I like to read Kids
Komer every week. It is fun.
Carol Martin
Middleburg
We Want To Hear
Write and tell us about yourself.
Do you have any pets? Did some
thing funny or sad happen wjyou?
"What do you*'think of school.
National Wildlife Magazine
WASHINGTON. D.C.—
Woodpeckers, nature’s champion
chiselers. have whole forests at
their disposal - so why, utility
companies want to knew, do they
Dear Readers,
This happened one Friday even
ing. I’m not sure what the date was,
but it happened sometime in
October. One of our best horses
got killed on Route 372, a busy
road.
My brother Benuel had wanted
to put him in his stall, but just as the
horse got loose, he ran down to the
road. We didn’t think that this
would be the last time we would
see him run. His name was Tony
and he was a strong horse. We still
-miss him very much.
My name is Sarah Elizabeth. I
am in the fifth grade. I go to High
land School. I am 10 years old. My
birthday is May 26. I have two
brothers Amos, age 14; Benuel,
age 12; and four sisters: Elsie Mae,
18; Mary, 7; Malinda. S; and Anna,
2.
I also have a pet guinea pig
named Cindy. She is about three
months old now.
Sarah Elizabeth,
c/o Isaac and Lydia Zook,
Parksburg
From You
homewodc and chores?
Send your letters to “Kid’s Kor
ner” 1 East Main Street; P.O. Box
609, Ephrata, PA 17522,
MR. PENNSYLVANIA FARMER CUTS AND STORES HAY IN THE SILO TO FEED HIS CATTLE.
The Knock On
From
With love,
®{F'
IVV / j 1
\
pick on utility poles? According to
National Wildlife magazine, the
restless drillers apparently have
found that the jvooden columns
holding up telephone and power
lines are perfect for pecking.
Accordingly, the pole-busters
have become a peck of trouble.
Birds are launching beak
attacks on poles throughout much
of America. Of all the damaged
high-voltage transmission poles
the Alabama Power Company had
to replace during a recent three
year period, for example, 42 per
cent had been damaged by wood
peckers. Yet, it seems, some poles
are more popular than others, and
the birds can be maddingly parti
cular. Not tong ago. South Central
Power in rural Ohio had to replace
one pole three times, at a cost of
$35,000. Now helicopter crews
check the pole every month.
Joe Brown, a transmission
inspector for the Florida Power
Corporation, thinks the birds’
pole-pecking behavior stems from
habitat loss. “Woodpeckers prefer
large dead trees,” he says. “But
Hello! My name is Thelma Nolt
I live on a farm with about 300
dogs, which I help feed. Just today,
we fed all the dogs. We have three
horses but not cows. We have a cat
that is pretty fat. I have twin sisters
that are five years old.
Good bye!
Thelma Nolt
Hi! My name is Ruth Ann Mar
tin. I have five sisters and one
brother. My birthday is April 27.1
am in grade four. I am 9 years old.
We live on a dairy farm. We milk
43 cows.
Ruth Ann Martin
Newmanstown
Woodpeckers
development removes these trees,
and the closest thing to a dead tree
is a utility pole.”
Brown theorizes that some
poles stand at junctures along
migratory flyways, and that the
complusive percussionists use
them as signal drums. Perhaps that
explains the birds’ fascination
with one of his company’s poles.
In 1967, after replacing the
pecked-to-pieces pole twice in
nine years, Florida Power coated it
with bird repellent (Use of most
chemical repellents has since been
discontinued.) Still, the pecking
continued. Crews had to replace
the pole again the following year,
and once more in 1970. Exasper
ated, they finally put in a steel
pole. “We’ve had to repaint the
steel pole three times since then
because the woodpeckers still
peck at it” says Brown. Mean
while, two adjacent poles remain
mysteriously unpecked.
In some places, the birds pre
sent only minor'problems. But in
Alabama, the Alabama Power
Company is fighting an all-out
war. Last year, the company spent
more than $1 million replacing
over-pecked poles. Now officials
estimate that the birds ruin one of
their poles every day. “Alabama is
a major woodpecker habitat,”
explains transmission line super
visor Gary McCarthy. Naturally,
the Alabama state bird -- the flick
er - is a woodpecker.
According to ornithologist Ste
ven Sibley of Cornell University,
woodpeckers are adapting to peo
ple in their habitat. During the
mating season in the spring, males
apparently try to impress females
with their noise-making prowess.
With fewer available dead trees,
they seek out utility poles and
other loud percussives. Says
Sibley, ‘They’ve discovered tha.
drainpipes and stop signs work
even better than dead trees."
Power companies are busy
devising defensive strategies.
Many wrap their poles u> steel or
wire mesh. “But if a woodpecker
really wants to get at a pole, he can
get through that wire mesh.” says
Alabama Power’s Gary
McCarthy.
Even pungent wood preserva
tives seem not to deter die pests.
The best defense so far? Concrete
poles. “The woodpecker can’t
alight on them and get a grip,”
says McCarthy. However, he adds
that the company has no plans to
start replacing all wooden poles
with concrete ones, which are
more expensive.
Florida Power’s Joe Brown
notes that his company has tried
tying artificial owls and snakes
atop poles to spook woodpeckers,
“but the birds soon figure out that
it’s not the real thing,” he says.
Research is under way on ultra
sonic repelling devices, though
utility officials, respectful of the
birds’ awesome tenacity, are not
optimistic. Many authorities are
pinning their hopes on a new
chemical repellent called ST 138,
which awaits Environmental Pro
tection Agency approval.
A pole belonging .to Ohio’s
South Central Power Company
once suffered so many woodpeck
er attacks that the company finally
got permission from the state
wildlife department to destroy the
offenders. In the end, the idea was
ruled out: “That would not be A
popular decision,” says manager
Reno Robinctt. “I also fell we
should be able to outsmart the
birds.”