The Center for American Progress reports
A new report [carried out on behalf of Scottish government by the British Trust for Ornithology and the University of the Highlands and Islands' Environmental Research Institute] found that over 99 percent of seabirds were likely to alter their flight paths in order to avoid collision with offshore wind farms. While the analysis offers new estimates of which seabirds and what percentage change course to avoid wind turbines, it still leaves many questions about the overall impacts of wind turbines--on and offshore--on bird populations.
[...]thousands of birds could still be killed each year and that this "could even significantly reduce the total populations of some species."
"It is therefore vital that individual developments avoid the most important places for seabirds," [said Aedan Smith of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds]. "Impacts on seabirds must be reduced significantly if offshore wind is to realize its full potential of delivering much needed sustainable renewable energy."
Different birds have markedly different reactions to the wind farms, according to the report. Gannets, which are large, white birds, avoid entering wind farms altogether, while gulls are "less cautious" and may even be drawn to the sites for their foraging benefits. Even so, the report says that inside the farms, gulls "seem to show a strong avoidance of the turbine blades."
Related:
Wind Turbines Kill Birds and Bats
Related Stories
Wind energy is great: It's clean, it's often cheap, and in many locales, it's an ideal power source. Except for the whole animal-killing thing. Unfortunately, every year, wind kills hundreds of thousands of bats in the United States—maybe as many as 600,000, according to some estimates.
Now, we finally have a good idea why: the bats likely think the turbines are trees, because the air currents around slowly-moving turbines mimic those that move around their wooden counterparts.
To study the effect, Paul Cryan, a United States Geological Survey researcher, and his team observed roughly 1,000 bats at specially-manipulated wind turbines over the course of two months in 2012.
Some possible solutions are suggested by the researchers; read more to find out what they've come up with.
(Score: 3) by darkfeline on Friday December 19 2014, @11:25PM
Scientists have found that animals other than humans (and plants!) are capable of adapting to their environment. News at 11.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 20 2014, @12:40AM
My suggested dept was from the bird-brain dept.
So yeah, it was interesting that there was an ability to adapt easily to something that has changed radically in a fairly short time.
That there is a noteworthy difference between species to adapt is interesting, when people have been speaking about the threat to birds as a monolithic group.
I note that a significant number of the people who are doing the hand-waving about the danger posed to critters by renewable energy don't have a record of activism re: protecting wildlife.
-- gewg_
(Score: 1) by steveha on Saturday December 20 2014, @12:26AM
When I read about endangered birds being killed by wind turbine collisions, that worries me. While I would prefer for non-endangered birds to live happy and full lives, I am not as worried if a non-endangered bird is killed by a wind turbine.
So I'm wondering if there are any sea birds that are endangered.
(After a quick web search:) It appears that there are endangered seabirds, but they are rare and confined to specific areas. So, we can't build wind farms by Christmas Island or the Galapagos, but building one off the coast of England or of the USA should be okay. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/seven-endangered-seabirds-around-the-world-29320343/?no-ist [smithsonianmag.com]
Also, I wonder if there is any reason to hope that land birds will learn to identify wind turbines and avoid them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 20 2014, @12:43AM
Some of this was discussed in the previous thread. [soylentnews.org]
In a relative sense, it's small potatoes. [wikipedia.org]
-- gewg_
(Score: 3, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday December 20 2014, @01:12AM
It appears that there are endangered seabirds, but they are rare
Well... yeah.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday December 20 2014, @10:08AM
Also, if you are concerned about killed birds, you also should not fly. [chacha.com] Anyone who complains about wind farms killing birds while at the same time having no concerns entering a plane is either ignorant or a hypocrite.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday December 20 2014, @05:29PM
The article I read yesterday, and apparently the linked article as well, left out a very important point: it's one species of birds, not all birds. I know from firsthand experience.
On March 12, 2006 (a night I'll never forget) two strong F2 tornadoes tore through Springfield, one through my neighborhood. The next morning found dead starlings everywhere, one every two or three feet. I must have seen tend of thousands of dead starlings.
They were studying one species of bird. Stupid journalists...
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