Bird's Nest Pointed To As Culprit In Major North Austin Power Outage

NORTH AUSTIN, TX — This will not end well for our avian friends.

Officials at the Austin Energy utility on Monday morning reported an outage that affected nearly 3,300 customers in North Austin on Monday morning. In a series of tweets, officials suggested the weather-related fire was fed by the makings of a bird's nest atop the pole, knocking out electricity to their customers in the early morning hours.

The outage occurred at around 5:30 a.m., sparking outages along a wide area of North Austin stretching from near Lamar and MoPac boulevards in an east-to-west direction and from Research Boulevard to Rundberg and Braker Lanes from south to north.

Power was restored about an hour later.

The outage comes in the wake of a controversy involving Monk parakeets making their nests atop power poles in the city. The folks at the local Audubon Society got wind of nest removals by utility officials—who use a long stick with attached to a cutting mechanism that cuts the nests in tiny pieces whether they're inhabited or not—of parakeet nests.

Related story: Real-Life Angry Birds: Audubon Society Decries Austin Energy Nests Destruction

Yes, parakeets. While not native to these parts, the birds have made much of Austin their home, generations of the feathered denizens that probably sprang from a pair that escaped their caged pet status at one point in time. Utility officials acknowledged their nest decimation methods, but cited safety as a major justification while later saying they would explore other tactics to remove nests with minimal damage to eggs and baby birds.

The nest that helped spark Monday's pole fire was...wait for it....one made by Monk parakeets. The outage of more than 3,000 homes likely won't fare well for the birds, and more than a few ruffled feathers will likely result in this latest birds-versus-humans scrape.

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