Local birds have been left homeless after the replacement of a Peel Parade power pole recently.
Resident Anne Lifto said she was concerned about a pair of pink and grey galahs and a pair of rosellas who both annually used the hollowed out power pole during breeding season.
“The two galahs are chewing on the new, treated pine pole to create a new hollow,” Ms Lifto said.
“They’ll never do it; the wood’s too hard and they’ll give up.
“I worry it will be too late for this year’s season for them to find a new nest and then the rosellas will have nowhere to go as well.
“Their breeding season is after the galahs and they use the same hollow.”
While Ms Lifto understood the pole needed to be replaced for safety reasons, she questioned why Western Power couldn’t put a nesting box up for the birds.
Galahs carve their nests out of trees, or in this case a wooden pole, and return to them every year.
The nesting holes are usually about 10 metres apart and during breeding season and the galahs can become territorial.
“There are a lot of trees around here, but there are also a lot of galahs and therefore competition for nests is high,” Ms Lifto said.
A Western Power spokesperson said while it was not uncommon for wildlife in inhabit network equipment, it wouldn’t be practicable to attach a nesting box to a power pole.
“Western Power has work practices in place to specifically deal with bird nests located on network equipment,” the spokesperson said.
“If nesting or dwelling places are identified that may be impacted by the work, crews are encouraged to stop the activity and check for signs of recent activity.”
