Dozens of birdwatchers who traveled to a Scottish island to see an extremely fast and rare swift have been left distraught after it was killed by a wind turbine.
While not an endangered species, sightings of the White-throated Needletail are quite rare in the UK, since it’s primary breeding and migratory grounds are in the far east and India. So when one was spotted on the the Isles of Harris it caused quite an interest with birdwatchers who flocked to the island to see it.
Wikipedia says: 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.
Video follows.
Despite its purported speed, it wasn’t fast enough to avoid the turbine blades.
There had been only eight recorded sightings of the white-throated needletail in the UK since 1846. So when one popped up again on British shores this week, bird watchers were understandably excited. A group of 40 enthusiasts dashed to the Hebrides to catch a glimpse of the brown, black and blue bird, which breeds in Asia and winters in Australasia. But instead of being treated to a wildlife spectacle they were left with a horror show when it flew into a wind turbine and was killed.
This video was taken after the bird was killed by the wind turbine, and it seems there is no video of the actual collision with the wind turbine, though there are several reports in the British MSM about the event. Of course if it had been an oil derrick or a power plant smokestack that caused the death, you can bet every environmental organization would be having a collective cow. But, it was killed by green energy, so the death gets a pass.
Here is the bird in the area before it ventured into the wind turbine area. It certainly is fast.
h/t to Charles the Moderator
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I like birds.
CTM….says the link to the video is private
The Greens would like us to believe that claims of bird deaths from wind turbines are exagg erated. The naturalist David Bellamy was black balled by the BBC because of his rejection of climate policy, especially wind turbines. I think they might have trouble ignoring this bird’s demise.
Sacrificed on the alter of the Greens.
Link to original article please?
This blogs slips too easily and too often into stereotypes, almost as badly as the AGW alarmist crowd.
There is many many people in the environmentalist community who view wind farms as having many problems, for many reasons.
Environmentalist bashing for the sake of it, as if its black and white, leftwing,rightwing, only serves to further divide, without adding anything positive to the debate.
REPLY: Feel free to point out anything in the article that isn’t true – Anthony
I wonder if the swifts in my chimney can fly that fast. The make pretty sharp turns at those high speeds too.
For me the biggest surprise about this story is that I first saw it on the bbc.
The topology of the lefty mind is not integratable.
I could not get the url to work for me. This one, however, works for me:
Left wing green crazies really don’t care about reality. Greenies live in a phantasmagoric world of bogus, shallow “feelings” bereft of any logic or deep thought They are basically bloodthirsty—look how viciously greenies and their ilk fight to prevent even minimal laws that would defend 7 1/2 month old babies in the womb from the abortionists scalpels. Amazing dissonance of reason.
The URL went private in the time it took to preview then publish the essay, updated now along with a second video.
I doubt the public will be told if a California condor is ever killed by a wind mill. The condor is a scavenger and there is a veritable buffet of avian carrion at the base of windmills. Getting to the dead birds lying around the wind mills must shurely have already killed at least one of these extreemly rare and endangered birds.
When is the funeral?
Has BBC’s celebrity bird-watcher Bill Oddie commented?
Birds will certainly need to adapt to these new obstacles.
Pauls says:
June 28, 2013 at 8:20 am
This blogs slips too easily and too often into stereotypes, almost as badly as the AGW alarmist crowd.
That’s it. Kill the messenger. Maybe those birders need to go out with bushel baskets and collect the tattered corpses of birds killed by wind turbines.
This is an environmental disaster! We need to put an end to these dirty, bird murdering ‘green’ technologies! We must reduce our feather footprints and become one with nature….. Ooom ne ma ti pad me Ooom.
/sarc
During the Vietnam war, one officer explained a village had to be destroyed to save it.
This bird had to be destroyed to save it.
Pauls says:
June 28, 2013 at 8:20 am
This blogs slips too easily and too often into stereotypes, almost as badly as the AGW alarmist crowd.
###
Maybe some of us would have a better opinion of the environmental movement if it was not totaly dominated by Marxists bent on the destruction of civilization. As it is, they deservie all the derision one can give.
BTW, leftwing-rightwing is a false dichotomy.
So the first video went private immediately?
Can’t have those wonderful wind turbines display their nasty disposition toward birds now, can we?
Hypocrites!
“BTW, leftwing-rightwing is a false dichotomy.” Not for birds it’s not.
I believe there are a few video clips show large birds being chopped by these ghastly white elephants on youtube!
“Of course if it had been an oil derrick or a power plant smokestack that caused the death, you can bet every environmental organization would be having a collective cow. ”
Of course if it had been killed by a car or cat or by flying into a window you can bet WUWT wouldn’t have been writing about it. Yes, windmills kills birds and you need to consider that in deciding where to put them and how to design them, but overall it’s an insignificant number compared to birds killed by other human enterprises. I found some statistics here:
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2011/06/cats-tnr-birds-feral
This is why picking single examples like done here can give a false view of reality.
REPLY:So you’d not report it for fear of upsetting some delicate sensibilities? I’m simply reporting what other news sources have already reported and made a valid comparison about situations. Tough noogies if that bothers you. Motherjones is not a credible source, it is an activist newspaper. Do you listen to yourself when you state these things? – Anthony
What is important to find out is how do White-throated Needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus) taste. No sense in wasting it. 😉