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PoliticAverse

(26,366 posts)
Fri Jun 28, 2013, 08:12 AM Jun 2013

Birdwatchers see rare swift killed by wind turbine

Around 40 people were watching the White-throated Needletail, the world's fastest flying bird, on the Isles of Harris when the tragedy happened.

Sightings of the bird have only been recorded eight times in the UK in nearly 170 years, most recently in 1991, prompting around 80 ornithologists to visit the island in the hope of catching a glimpse.

John Marchant, a project coordinator for the British Trust for Ornithology, visited the island on a specially-arranged trip with a group of other birdwatchers and witnessed the death.

[...]

“We were absolutely over the moon and thrilled to see the bird. We watched it for nearly two hours. While we were watching it suddenly it was a bit close to the turbine and then the blades hit it,” he said.

Read the rest at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/10146135/Birdwatchers-see-rare-swift-killed-by-wind-turbine.html

30 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Birdwatchers see rare swift killed by wind turbine (Original Post) PoliticAverse Jun 2013 OP
Quick...tear those blasted things down pipoman Jun 2013 #1
That's life! The Torygraph gave it a good obituary, though. MADem Jun 2013 #2
Why was this a rare sighting? kristopher Jun 2013 #3
Birders make very specific notes of bird habitation and migration zones. joshcryer Jul 2013 #22
That was a rhetorical question. kristopher Jul 2013 #23
I think for birders it's more than just "taking a wrong turn." joshcryer Jul 2013 #29
I propose an international fund to buy the little buggers helmets! Vinnie From Indy Jun 2013 #4
If it was being watched by 40 ornithologists at the time, probably. GliderGuider Jun 2013 #6
No power source is benign dbackjon Jun 2013 #5
+1 Buzz Clik Jun 2013 #11
The world's fastest flying bird?? Um, no. wtmusic Jun 2013 #7
Notice that falcon is diving? OKIsItJustMe Jun 2013 #8
Ah, ok. Thanks for clarification. wtmusic Jun 2013 #9
The fastest-flying bird in flapping flight... DreamGypsy Jul 2013 #28
The white-throated needle tail is "of least concern" re: threatened/endangered species. Buzz Clik Jun 2013 #10
How so? XemaSab Jun 2013 #12
Put another way, this death of this bird had precisely zero environmental impact caraher Jun 2013 #14
The bird is rare in the UK dbackjon Jun 2013 #13
I agree that steps should be taken with wind energy technologies to minimize danger... DreamGypsy Jul 2013 #30
"Wind power turbine kills endangered species of birds" caraher Jun 2013 #15
I'll assume the turbine is an older discontinued model with faster moving blades. FogerRox Jun 2013 #16
I think it was a small one caraher Jun 2013 #17
This purports to be a picture of the turbine in question XemaSab Jun 2013 #18
Too bad there's nothing I can see in the picture to give a sense of scale caraher Jul 2013 #19
The wind speed indicator on top suggest it is a small wind turbine madokie Jul 2013 #20
Yeah, that weather station on top can't be more than 2' across. joshcryer Jul 2013 #21
The one on my neighbors was less than that madokie Jul 2013 #24
Right....No CPU, no direct drive, a gear box. FogerRox Jul 2013 #25
Here's a picture of a bird flying free in a city not plagued by nasty wind power. Arugula Latte Jul 2013 #26
That's why there's no birds in Holland thelordofhell Jul 2013 #27
 

pipoman

(16,038 posts)
1. Quick...tear those blasted things down
Fri Jun 28, 2013, 08:26 AM
Jun 2013

for the good of the swifts...bring back the coal already..it never hurt any swifts..

MADem

(135,425 posts)
2. That's life! The Torygraph gave it a good obituary, though.
Fri Jun 28, 2013, 08:56 AM
Jun 2013

I don't know if they'll convince people that saving a bird too thick to not fly into a turbine is worth going back to filthy fossil fuels or sketchy nuke power, but I'll bet that's in the back of their mind.

Maybe those birdwatchers can come up with some sort of device to put on the windmills, to scare those birds away! Maybe they could put a fake "predator bird" on top of the things, that will encourage the (not so) swifts to steer clear...?

kristopher

(29,798 posts)
3. Why was this a rare sighting?
Fri Jun 28, 2013, 09:35 AM
Jun 2013
...Experts said they thought the bird had got lost migrating from Siberia and it should have been as far away as Australia or Japan instead of Tarbert on the Isle of Harris.



Talk about taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque...

joshcryer

(62,265 posts)
22. Birders make very specific notes of bird habitation and migration zones.
Mon Jul 1, 2013, 07:14 AM
Jul 2013

A bird outside of a zone or in unexpected territory would be considered a rare sighting.

joshcryer

(62,265 posts)
29. I think for birders it's more than just "taking a wrong turn."
Mon Jul 1, 2013, 08:53 PM
Jul 2013

When a sighting like that happens it could be indicative of a migration pattern change, for instance.

But I appreciate your snide reaction to birders genuinely dismayed at the incident when by and large they are supportive of wind turbines (the Audubon Society in particular). It's just that those pesky birders and bird lovers like silly siting guidelines and such.

If you ask a birder their most hated threat to birds are feral or outdoor cats which cause the largest decimation of bird deaths by far (followed by ... windows).

Vinnie From Indy

(10,820 posts)
4. I propose an international fund to buy the little buggers helmets!
Fri Jun 28, 2013, 09:36 AM
Jun 2013

I wonder if this newspaper would have written an article about the death of this bird if a cat had killed it.

 

GliderGuider

(21,088 posts)
6. If it was being watched by 40 ornithologists at the time, probably.
Fri Jun 28, 2013, 01:30 PM
Jun 2013

The anti-wind contingent has nothing on the anti-cat brigade.

 

dbackjon

(6,578 posts)
5. No power source is benign
Fri Jun 28, 2013, 01:15 PM
Jun 2013

Wind, especially has issues when it comes to birds and bats.

Better than coal, but far from green.

wtmusic

(39,166 posts)
7. The world's fastest flying bird?? Um, no.
Fri Jun 28, 2013, 04:14 PM
Jun 2013

That would be the Peregrine Falcon, the maximum recorded speed of which is 242 mph (2-1/2 times faster).

Imagine a drone missile with feathers.

OKIsItJustMe

(19,933 posts)
8. Notice that falcon is diving?
Fri Jun 28, 2013, 04:27 PM
Jun 2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_Falcon
…The Peregrine is renowned for its speed, reaching over 322 km/h (200 mph) during its characteristic hunting stoop (high speed dive), …


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-throated_Needletail
… It is the fastest-flying bird in flapping flight, with a confirmed maximum of 111.6 km/h (69.3 mph). …

wtmusic

(39,166 posts)
9. Ah, ok. Thanks for clarification.
Fri Jun 28, 2013, 04:32 PM
Jun 2013

I was assuming that there was a separate classification for "fastest non-flying bird".

Which would probably be an ostrich.

DreamGypsy

(2,252 posts)
28. The fastest-flying bird in flapping flight...
Mon Jul 1, 2013, 08:49 PM
Jul 2013

From Wikipedia:

The White-throated Needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus), also known as Needle-tailed Swift or Spine-tailed Swift, is a large swift. It is the fastest-flying bird in flapping flight, with a confirmed maximum of 111.6 km/h (69.3 mph). It is commonly reputed to reach velocities of up to 170 km/h (105 mph), though this has not been verified.


The Wikipedia Peregrine Falcon article says:

The Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), also known as the Peregrine, and historically as the Duck Hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. <snip> The Peregrine is renowned for its speed, reaching over 322 km/h (200 mph) during its characteristic hunting stoop (high speed dive),[6] making it the fastest member of the animal kingdom. According to a National Geographic program, the highest measured speed of a Peregrine Falcon is 389 km/h (242 mph).


From Speed of Animals, an article referenced by the Wikipedia piece:

The world's record for speed among living things Is best established for the Indian spine-tailed swift, a bird which was repeatedly clocked In level flight, over a carefully measured two-mile course, in as little as 3Z.8 seconds or 219 Miles an hour. The European peregrine, a hawk used in falconry, was timed at 165 to 180 mph during its dive after quarry. In the United States, the golden eagle and the duck hawk can dive from high altitudes at similar speeds and the latter, In level flight, easily overtakes and seizes such swift birds as ducks and pigeons.


So, there appear to be some conflicting claims. What's indisputable, however, is the falcons and swifts are speedy creatures.

We frequently see Northern Harrier hawks in our blueberry fields and in the surrounding hay fields. They are very cool to watch because they hover, at heights ranging from about 4 ft to 50 ft above the ground, for seemingly minutes, before diving at their prey. The diversity of birds is wonderful!

caraher

(6,276 posts)
14. Put another way, this death of this bird had precisely zero environmental impact
Sun Jun 30, 2013, 12:21 PM
Jun 2013

It was alone, far from its habitat, and while it might have eventually found its way back home it's just as likely it would have met its demise in any of a hundred far more commonplace ways a bird in a strange land might die.

Bummer for the birders, but otherwise a non-story. Or at least no more a story than the death of any single, randomly-selected bird.

This story came to my attention thanks to my anti-wind activist cousin. That says all one really needs to know about why the story is getting so much play.

 

dbackjon

(6,578 posts)
13. The bird is rare in the UK
Sat Jun 29, 2013, 05:55 PM
Jun 2013

The story emphasises several things - One, that wind does kill birds, and two, that wind is not discriminate in what it kills, whether a locally rare (but globally stable) bird, or a true endangered birds.


And remember, the two most abundant birds in the US at the time of white settlement are now extinct.

DreamGypsy

(2,252 posts)
30. I agree that steps should be taken with wind energy technologies to minimize danger...
Mon Jul 1, 2013, 08:58 PM
Jul 2013

Last edited Mon Jul 1, 2013, 09:36 PM - Edit history (1)

...to birds and other animals. But the motivations for those changes should come from legitimate reports about native populations, and not emotional appeals to birders because a single bird of a species which only strays to Scotland once every twenty years has died. The 80 people who witnessed this 'murder of a rare bird' could probably have done more to ensure the survival of local species if they didn't use fossil fuels for the 625 mile, 13 hours 56 mins trip from Norfolk to the Isle of Harris (and that's the short route using the A82; it's 700 miles if you take the M6!)

Ok, maybe only one birder came for Norfolk and perhaps she/he walked or bicycled the entire way except, of course, swimming to avoid the ferry voyage. Or maybe not. This article strikes me as a very typical attempt by the press to incite fear and panic into the general population.

Here is the natural distribution of the White-throated Needletail (fromWikipedia):


Northern summer (bright green) Resident (dark green) Northern winter (yellow)

These swifts breed in rocky hills in central Asia and southern Siberia. This species is migratory, wintering south in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Australia. It is a rare vagrant in western Europe, but has been recorded as far west as Norway, Sweden and Great Britain. In June 2013, the bird was spotted in the United Kingdom, the first sighting in 22 years. The bird flew into a wind turbine and died; its body was sent to a museum.


Note that Tom Stike was very quick to update this page with the latest news. A good thing, I guess.


(on edit: I hit Post my reply instead of Preview, early in the composition. We're idiots, Babe. It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.)

caraher

(6,276 posts)
15. "Wind power turbine kills endangered species of birds"
Sun Jun 30, 2013, 12:35 PM
Jun 2013

The title of a RW blog post I just ran across (someone who clearly doesn't read, say, Anthony Watts, whose take on the story begins by admitted the species is not endangered).

Google "white throated needletail endangered" and the results are littered with the feverish ravings of RW nutjobs mocking the "greenies" because they fail to perceive their own alleged hypocrisy in promoting "green energy" technologies that (they conclude on the basis of this story) are purportedly wiping out endangered birds species.

It scarcely bears repeating that weird one-off incidents like this should count for little, weighed against likelihood that fossil fuel use is on track to wipe out a large fraction of all bird species worldwide...

caraher

(6,276 posts)
17. I think it was a small one
Sun Jun 30, 2013, 07:09 PM
Jun 2013

rather than part of a large wind farm. The BBC report quotes a statement calling it a "small domestic wind turbine."

I assume the blades turn fairly quickly (in terms of RPM) on such a unit (though perhaps not in terms of blade tip speeds...)

caraher

(6,276 posts)
19. Too bad there's nothing I can see in the picture to give a sense of scale
Mon Jul 1, 2013, 01:04 AM
Jul 2013

Though it doesn't look much like any of the megawatt-class turbines I'm used to seeing, and it also appears to be a single unit. So it probably is a small-ish unit.

From what I could find it's probably a 10 kW unit (which doesn't really match up with the Sun's picture).

madokie

(51,076 posts)
20. The wind speed indicator on top suggest it is a small wind turbine
Mon Jul 1, 2013, 03:00 AM
Jul 2013

or that is one big ass wind speed indicator. I don't remember seeing any indicators that would be that big in comparison if it is indeed a large turbine.
My neighbor used to have a 4 kw unit, still has the tower, that when it was in use it seemed to be turning at a pretty good clip. I think his individual blades are 10 ft long, making for about a 21 total. His used an over sped 220 volt 1200 rpm induction motor, not sure of the gear ratio on his gear box though to figure out his blades rpms with.

madokie

(51,076 posts)
24. The one on my neighbors was less than that
Mon Jul 1, 2013, 07:18 AM
Jul 2013

more like maybe 16 inches with two and a half inch cups. At any rate this is a small turbine. Smaller turbines do spin faster and are more dangerous to our avian friends.

FogerRox

(13,211 posts)
25. Right....No CPU, no direct drive, a gear box.
Mon Jul 1, 2013, 07:20 PM
Jul 2013

Direct drive Computer operated turbines turn much slower, allowing birds to see the blades, and fly in between the blades.

 

Arugula Latte

(50,566 posts)
26. Here's a picture of a bird flying free in a city not plagued by nasty wind power.
Mon Jul 1, 2013, 07:24 PM
Jul 2013

Oh, wait. It's actually a kite in the shape of a bird. It's hard to tell through the thick choking pollution. But, anyway, this is a much healthier environment for birds and people, I'm sure of it.

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