It seems that birds are not too worried about wind turbines, according to the Journal of Applied Ecology. Various conservation groups have feared that birds, especially large birds might get be affected by turbines at wind farms so Newcastle University studied the concentration of birds in areas where there are wind farms.
They found that out of 23 bird species in Eastern England in the neighbourhood of two wind farms all species except the pheasant were in normal concentrations. So they concluded that more wind farms would not put birds at risk.
Some bird conservation groups are concerned that large birds might get caught up in wind turbines. The Newcastle University research did not cover this possibility, but I imagine that if this were to be the case the various bird protection societies would be publishing figures of dead birds found at the foot of turbines, but I have not seen any such news.
There is some evidence in Norway that 13 sea eagles have died in close proximity of a wind farm at Smøla, which is of the coast of Norway. Sea eagles are a very rare and important species. However, I imagine that the numbers of rare birds that have been killed by fossil fuel emissions changing their habitat or making their food source more difficult to find by changing the climate is very significantly higher, so it may well be a case of choosing wind turbines over fossil fuel as the least worst option.
Of course, if birds do not like being near wind turbines you would expect them to move away from them, but there is no evidence that they do this. It therefore seems that we do not have to fear that birds will be adversely affected by wind farms, which is good news. If they are affected I have no doubt that organisations, like the Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds, will soon be drawing any ill effects to our attention.
Filed under: carbon emissions, climate change, energy, global warming, wind turbines | Tagged: birds, effect of wind turbines on birds, sea eagles, smola
Robert, Wind turbines have a stroboscopic effect which will be a problemto some humans who have conditions such as epilepsy!
This can happen at certain times of the day [related to position of the Sun] and also certain viewing angle of Wind turbin clusters.
as can be seenin the .pdf below a wind turbine management software company does acknowledge this :
http://www.emersonprocess-powerwater.com/solutions/SCADA_Wind-%20Energy.pdf
Another web-page says that windturbines do not have a stroboscopic effect at the the bottom it concludes that the do! and this can be solved by swithing off the turbines at certain times!
http://promotingwindenergy.co.uk/issues/flicker.html