Birds of prey that are diurnal, (active during the day) are normally called raptors. This includes eagles, hawks, buzzards, harriers, kites, falcons as well as vultures.
3. Proactive mitigation of electrical infrastructure
The proactive approach to mitigation of existing electrical infrastructure, is generally initiated when the above described reactive approach is deemed inadequate for the particular situation.
Often, a number of interactions involving a sensitive species occur in a particular area, giving rise to the need for a more strategic risk assessment of the broader area, and ultimately mitigation of a larger amount of infrastructure in the hopes of preventing further interactions. The steps followed are generally as follows:
Analysis of the Central Incident Register data reveals unacceptably high levels of interactions in a particular area.
A site visit is conducted by the Partnership in order to assess the risk, and identify any patterns or factors that may be resulting in a greater risk in this particular area. This may be factors such as the presence of a vulture colony, or a crane roost site.
Usually GIS is used to identify high risk infrastructure for mitigation in order to prevent any future interactions.
The result is a detailed report and proposal to Eskom on how best to allocate resources to the problem whilst achieving the maximum possible reduction in risk to the species concerned.
In short, the proactive approach incorporates some prediction of where future interactions could occur, and the mitigation of that infrastructure in order to prevent the interaction.
