Hi Evan and baussers
Sorry to be coming in a little late on this topic but I have been away in
NZ. As has been already stated by others, it is the positioning of the
turbines which will determine the number of bird and bat strikes.
Sometimes these can be quite substantial. I have done assessments on a
few possible windfarm sites to try to determine the potential for bird
strikes. In Australia most sites do not appear to be a problem but some
have been shelved because of the potential for birdstrike, particularly
on coastal islands which are part of the migratory flyway for waders.
A few years ago I worked on raptor migration surveys in southern Spain
where thousands of raptors can migrate though in a single day. There
was a major issue there with several species but particularly Griffon
Vultures which had quite a high mortality rate. Some of the local
scientists were working on this problem. Southern Spain is riddled with
wind turbines and one day when the winds were all wrong for raptor
migration, I started counting wind turbines from the elevated
observatory I was working from. Some 900+ later I got bored with this.
While there in Spain I met Dr Keith Bildstein from Hawk Mountain
Sanctuary which is located along the Appalachian Flyway in east-central
Pennsylvania, USA. We had a long chat about wind turbine problems and
he told me that they had been removed from several areas in the USA
where they were causing major problems with raptors.
It is a far from simple issue - the turbines can be noisy and do have a
major impact on visual amenity.
Cheers
Roy
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