It should be mentioned that Altamount's wind turbines have long been identified as being the poorest in design, positioning (between turbines) and siting in general (IE right along the flight paths of Golden Eagles). Altamount is also one of the country's earliest wind turbine set ups ,hence why it was so poorly done. Unfortunately it is also the site that has the most study. Of particular potential confounding effects is the difference on construction between the Altamount towers and the towers we see in Iowa. The Altamount structures has a cross-hatch design that provide tempting staging grounds for eagles and other raptors, thus bringing them in closer to the blades. The newest generation designs lack such obvious staging positions on them, and thus are less tempting for raptors to engage for staging.
Never mind that fatalities due to wind turbine collisions pale in comparison to all other human related mortalities (uncontrolled cats being of course the primary and most destructive source of avian [and small mammal] mortalities, though window collisions and powerlines as well as vehicle still outstrip fatalities caused by wind turbines by several orders of magnitude). That being said, there is woefully little information from a vast majority of the wind turbine territories. And some evidence that wind turbines have non-fatal affects on population distribution of raptors in general. However, it should be recognized that any stats from the Altamount facilities should be consumed carefully if one wishes to generalize to all wind turbines. Jacob On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 3:54 PM, Dan Mehner <[email protected]> wrote: > While researching photovoltaic efficiencies I found an interesting article > on wind turbine eagle kills. > > > http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/new-eagle-kill-regulations-for-wind-farms-may-have-mixed-consequences > > > "At Altamont Pass, California, a hilly area and one of the nation’s > largest wind development areas, an estimated 70 eagles are killed each > year." was what really surprised me. I knew towers were big killers of > birds but did not realize the eagle count was so high. The article is > mostly about regulations and not kill numbers. > > --- > Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as > members make it! > --- > Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: > Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 > --- > This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. > Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/PayDues.aspx > . > ----- > You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected] > --- Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members make it! --- Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/PayDues.aspx. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
