Everyone knows that a bear - well, you know what he does in the woods. But eagles, sometimes they do it on power lines, and it's a menace to society.

Rocky Mountain Power said it will retrofit power lines near the Cody area later this month because of recent outages caused by raptor "venting." When a raptor "vents" it sprays, and when the spray spans the power line and a power pole or insulator, it can cause an outage.

"When crews have gone out to check an area of line where a fault occurred, they haven't found anything. So after a number of times of the same thing happening, they came to the determination it was raptor venting," said Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Jeff Hymas.

Later this month, crews will install insulators on 40 to 60 power poles over an 8.6-mile stretch of transmission line.

But it was another power line/raptor problem that may have gotten the attention of federal wildlife officials.

There's been an inordinate number of raptor deaths because of power line contact in the Worland area, according to Hymas. He said the company had already initiated a retrofit of a decades-old power line in the Big Horn Basin earlier this year, replacing about 300 poles to increase the distance between power lines and other equipment.

Hymas said Rocky Mountain Power has received subpoenas for information regarding its avian protection practices, and regarding the increased eagle and raptor mortalities in the Worland area. However, the action is not the result of any order. Hymas said the company is retrofitting the power line of its own accord.

"We have a very robust avian protection program, and believe it's important to take proactive measures to reduce bird mortalities and to ensure compliance with all regulations," said Hymas.

Data on the number and rates of raptor deaths because of power line contact in the region was not immediately available.

Susan Ahalt of Ironside Bird Rescue Inc. in Cody said Rocky Mountain Power has been very responsive to avian safety.

"If they find something that's been electrocuted, they will make adaptations so it doesn't happen again," Ahalt said. "If I call them on something, they immediately come to help."

Crews still have about 1,700 power poles to retrofit. Hymas said the company hopes to complete the work by year's end, but doing so will depend on weather conditions.

Contact energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@trib.com