Bird Mortality in the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, California

Abstract

The 165‐km2 Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area (APWRA) in west‐central California includes 5,400 wind turbines, each rated to generate between 40 kW and 400 kW of electric power, or 580 MW total. Many birds residing or passing through the area are killed by collisions with these wind turbines. We searched for bird carcasses within 50 m of 4,074 wind turbines for periods ranging from 6 months to 4.5 years. Using mortality estimates adjusted for searcher detection and scavenger removal rates, we estimated the annual wind turbine–caused bird fatalities to number 67 (80% CI = 25–109) golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), 188 (80% CI = 116–259) red‐tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), 348 (80% CI = −49 to 749) American kestrels (Falco sparverius), 440 (80% CI = −133 to 1,013) burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea), 1,127 (80% CI = −23 to 2,277) raptors, and 2,710 (80% CI = −6,100 to 11,520) birds. Adjusted mortality estimates were most sensitive to scavenger removal rate, which relates to the amount of time between fatality searches. New on‐site studies of scavenger removal rates might warrant revising mortality estimates for some small‐bodied bird species, although we cannot predict how the mortality estimates would change. Given the magnitude of our mortality estimates, regulatory agencies and the public should decide whether to enforce laws intended to protect species killed by APWRA wind turbines, and given the imprecision of our estimates, directed research is needed of sources of error and bias for use in studies of bird collisions wherever wind farms are developed. Precision of mortality estimates could be improved by deploying technology to remotely detect collisions and by making wind turbine power output data available to researchers so that the number of fatalities can be related directly to the actual power output of the wind turbine since the last fatality search.

Effects of Renewable Energy Production and Infrastructure on Wildlife

“…Hundreds to thousands of birds, including more than 40 species, some of them endangered, died there every year (Asmus 2005 ;Thelander and Rugge 2000 ;Smallwood and Thelander 2005 ;Thelander 2004 ;Smallwood and Thelander 2008 ). Such fatalities are not limited to California or the USA (Erickson et al 2001 ;US GAO 2005 ).…”

Методики Изучения Миграций Птиц На Территориях Ветровых Электростанций

“…мелких воробьинообразных ежегодно) и в провинции Наварра, Испания (20,6 грифов на 1 турбину ежегодно). Заметим, что данные приводятся для периода 1980-1990-е годы и ветроустановок старого поколения (Fact Sheet, 2005;Smallwood, Thelander, 2005). Современные ветровые парки с турбинами более 1 МВт в меньшей степени влияют на птиц (Krijgsveld et al,2009;Gray , 2012;Горлов та ін., 2014с).…”

The avian and wildlife costs of fossil fuels and nuclear power

“…A 1992 assessment sponsored by the California Energy Commission estimated than more than 1766 bats and 4721 wild birds, representing more than 40 species, some of them endangered, perished every year while passing through the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area (Asmus 2005). Recent follow-up studies have tended to confirm this trend: Thelander and Rugge (2000) and Smallwood and Thelander (2005) studied raptor mortality at Altamont Pass and estimated that as many as 835 were killed each year. Thelander (2004) projected that 881 to 1300 birds perished there per year.…”