Wind farms slaughtering eagles
 

A government study says wind farms have slaughtered over 60 Golden and Bald eagles over the last five years and that number is likely low. Later the story says wind farms in Norther California near Altamont Pass kill at least 60 per year, so one of the numbers must be wrong. Either way, that is a lot of eagles.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...agles-5-years/

I would say that shows a big improvement by the power companies to reduce bird deaths. Dropping from 60 a year at 1 facility to 60 in 5 years covering 32 facilities.

WWW

Unintended consequences. Saw another piece where a lot of bats were being killed, too. I think the birds and bats will adapt.

When they built a new highway in our area, the first few months it opened it was a deer massacre. Seemed like a deer or two got hit every night in a short stretch. But eventually the deer learned and now there is seldom one hit. I think the same thing will happen with the birds and the wind farms.

How many go in a trash bag uncounted? Another unintended consequence, the usual result of being so focused on one aspect and ignoring all else.

Save the Earth! Kill the Eagles!

I suppose we could take the turbines down and build another coal plant or two. I love a little mercury in my salmon.

People are detrimental to wildlife. We should get rid of them.

Ummm...that's not what the article said...the numbers did not improve...
"The study also excluded the deadliest place in the country for eagles, a cluster of wind farms in a northern California area known as Altamont Pass. Wind farms built there decades ago kill more than 60 per year." (emphasis added)

It's OK.. they are paying for the privileged to kill them...

"We are all responsible for protecting our wildlife, even the largest of corporations," Colorado U.S. Attorney David M. Gaouette said in 2009 when announcing Exxon Mobil had pleaded guilty and would pay $600,000 for killing 85 birds in five states, including Wyoming.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment...deral-impunity

I remember reading a few years ago some companies had paid.. a little..

With the hoodlums running Washington today, maybe those eagles committed suicide, no longer wanting to be an emblem representing the strength and freedom of the United States of America.:shrug:

You would think that in all this time someone could have developed a lightweight shield or grate that would keep the birds out of the blades. Something that would reflect the bats echos and be visible to birds.

HuH??? a fan guard? You seen the size of a windmill? the frame alone to hold a guard would have to be pretty massively built just to hold itself, much less a guard or shield..

Yes I've seen them. Passed the blades on the interstate once. Just thinking. Maybe someone who can develop it will use the idea.

The old windmills had huge wooden blades and a whole bunch of them. Formed nearly a solid piece. I wonder what their bird kill rate was. I know they were not used at the same rate as the wind farm turbines and their use was probably long before bird kill was a concern. But it would be interesting to know the vs factor. The old ones probably aren't as efficient as the new turbines though.

People or wildlife?

Ya I liked to see just what kind of guard could cover an area of 130 to 300 ft 300 feet from blade tip to blade tip. OUCH that is a lot of space to cover up. LOL

People is my guess. Overpopulation is the overwhelming cause of all the earths problems. :shrug::teehee::whistlin:

And these are off shore are really pushing the limit on size at over 800 Feet in diameter rotation.
Wind Turbine Blades Push Size Limits

And there is no way to cover up those blades.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...sh-size-limits
And this is the newest ones that are going to great sizes.

I find articles like this to be very frustrating. Every action, every decision, every move has a consequence. Every single one! Part of being an intellectual species is to consider the pros and the cons of our actions, decisions, moves and decide what would work best to solve a problem. People need energy the same as every other living thing on this planet, we have simply engineered faster ways of getting more and more energy and now we are realizing that extracting/using this massive amount of energy has consequences that we may not have realized before. I commend the people that have developed cleaner ways of producing energy but I realize that STILL every action/decision/move is going to have a consequence!

This article was written by a journalist that was looking to invoke negative feelings about wind power and probably large wind corporations. It was not a plea for research into solving the problem it was a "troll post". IMO

Any information on how this has affected the eagle population in the area? If the population is stable or growing then this is unimportant. Each area has a carrying capacity of each species and with out more data on the eagle population in the area no conclusion about the turbines over all effect can be reached.

Yes that article was looking to be sensational by ignoring facts.
Typical tainted misguiding "journalism".

The old Kalifornai installation used the older tech high speed turbines. And the "Telepachi (bad spelling) was put in on a known bird fly way. and has killed a number of birds. I believe that they are changing out those old high speed turbines for new slow speed units.

"Huh??? . . a fan guard . .??. . . .Guess it is pretty obvious you have not seen the wind turbines of today.
The company I was involved with installed 2.5mega watt turbines. The hub height is 100 meters. Each blade is 140 feet long. Max shaft speed is 14 rpm. Of course blade tip is speed s much higher.
In the works are 5 mega watt turbines . . mainly for off shore installs.....

My two turbines have zero bird kills . . . . . . .The windows of my house have 6 bird kills in the last dozen years.

Now you will not believe the number of bird kills from domestic and feral CATS......
staggering number..........

So please dear reader before you believe some stupid jock writing some thing he knows NOT about...........get the real facts.

What did I read the outer edge of those blades are going like 160 MPH? Something like that

And yet there was a big to-do about a bridge being built near here some years ago because the light poles were in an eagle flight-path. I kinda figured if an eagle couldn't see a stationary light pole, he probably shouldn't be part of the gene pool. A spinning wind turbine is another thing altogether.

I agree that too many people are the problem, and yet we go out of our way to preserve and extend every human life across the planet. That's fine, and every human life is precious, but then we need to control the population growth to compensate. Are there any other animals in our size range numbering in the billions? I wonder what the largest animal on earth is that numbers as many as humans? I suppose that Nature will eventually have a 'corrective action' on the human population- I don't want to be around to see that.

So are you saying that you're okay with the killing of bees, eagles, other birds and bats?

I'm just glad I was born when I was and had a chance at the American dream and saw America in some of it's glory days before over population and it's all inclusive ways began and changed our lives for the worse .

I won't presume to speak for the poster but everyday in my interactions with the rest of the natural world I take the lives if many creatures. Some are deliberate- I swat mosquitoes. Some are inadvertant- stupid bird in the grill of my car! I don't swerve for squirrels or other cute, fuzzy little creatures. Just by being we affect all life around us. Should we do what is possible to minimize those effects? Yes. Should we stop all progress in the quest of perfect solutions. No. We should strike the best balance we can.

Deleted by YH, missed the mark with my formula, sorry bout that.

Have you ever washed a car windshield? :)

I'm sure it happens, but, the wind generators I see in this part of the country turn so slowly that I have a hard time believing they are too dangerous to any bird. Maybe they are turning faster in California, but the ones around here--a eagle would have to be suicidal or very unaware of his flight path to crash into one. My BIL has a smaller one on his farm and has never seen a dead bird yet in 6 years.

We all have read / heard about some project that is brought to a stand-still because a eagle-eyed-grunting-toad was spotted at / nearby the project site.
Well all those protesters will go home at night and turn down the (electric) air conditioner, put something on the (electric) stove to cook, warm something else up in the (electric) microwave.
The vast majority of those ***peoples*** have no concept of where all that nice convenient electricity comes from....

So how many toads and eagles do we have to sacrifice for the exploding population's demand for a goodie--(electricity)..........????????

Adding to Y Hubby's bit about blade tip speed;
Those 140 foot blades are down right massive......
Therefore, they are far and away more visible . . . .

Any eagle that can't spot that blade will soon die anyway because it wont be able to spot dinner---that rabbit.....or field mouse......

Circumference = 2 * pi * r

Puts the tip speed at 140mph at 14 rpm

My post on speeds are for those real big ones. And come from sites like this.
The World's Biggest Wind Turbine Blades Are So Long Their Tips Spin at 180 MPH
http://gizmodo.com/5930272/the-world...pin-at-180-mph

I believe it also didn't mention that the bald eagles are having a great comeback for the 70's and before. the eagles have now been having to fight for breeding spaces and they are killing each other in huge numbers as there are more birds than breeding nest sites. hopefully they will grow their territory. I have lived in ok all my life but just they year have seen one where I live. their numbesr are now more than sustainable. victory for the endangered list.

Eagles are amazing. No? Grand, regal, beautiful in flight. I like them.

*slaughtered*--is a gross overly dramatic characterization of an unintended accident
for the purposes of selling news which gets printed on paper made from slaughtered trees and
dollars made from slaughtered trees and cotton collected by news people driving to work each day in cars that slaughter people and animals.:hand:

I do not consider myself a tree hugger.

I stand corrected.... there was a time when I just didnt miss with numbers... sure miss those days! :)

I have since been made aware of my error and have made the necessary changes to reflect as much. sorry bout that. :)

I don't think we have a lot of eagles in west Texas, but we've got about a million of those huge ugly windmills. You can drive for hours on end and see them as far as the eye can see.

Ok SteveD . .Can you tell me that the demand for electricity is going down in Texas....??

Or is the air conditioning population of Texas constantly going up . . .???

You could also bring tons of coal in from CO. and burn it to meet the demand of all those air conditioners.

A good big functioning wind turbine is a beautiful thing..........

Anybody know any good recipes. Shame to let these piles of birds go to waste.:banana:

The eagles will be just fine, in my county.

The carpetbaggers were going to build 100 turbines (half next to my property), but we fought and won a 1/2 mile setback, so they headed elsewhere.

Obamas wind energy initiive is one of the largest "pork barrel" projects in US history.

So now you know why there are very few eagles in west Texas! Them windmills ate em all!