Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumBirdwatchers 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
pipoman
(16,038 posts)for the good of the swifts...bring back the coal already..it never hurt any swifts..
MADem
(135,425 posts)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)Talk about taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque...
joshcryer
(62,265 posts)A bird outside of a zone or in unexpected territory would be considered a rare sighting.
kristopher
(29,798 posts)I already answered it in the body of the post.
joshcryer
(62,265 posts)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)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)The anti-wind contingent has nothing on the anti-cat brigade.
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)Wind, especially has issues when it comes to birds and bats.
Better than coal, but far from green.
wtmusic
(39,166 posts)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)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-throated_Needletail
wtmusic
(39,166 posts)I was assuming that there was a separate classification for "fastest non-flying bird".
Which would probably be an ostrich.
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)From Wikipedia:
The Wikipedia Peregrine Falcon article says:
From Speed of Animals, an article referenced by the Wikipedia piece:
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!
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)XemaSab
(60,212 posts)caraher
(6,276 posts)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)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)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)
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)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...
FogerRox
(13,211 posts)caraher
(6,276 posts)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...)
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)caraher
(6,276 posts)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)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.
joshcryer
(62,265 posts)Fairly small turbine.
madokie
(51,076 posts)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)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)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.
thelordofhell
(4,569 posts)Goddamn Windmills