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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Anthony, You may write about events like this, but I think it’s useful to provide a context and as you didn’t, I did. Sorry if that upset your delicate sensibilities.
If you don’t like Motherjones there are plenty of different sources you can find, and even if they all give surprisingly different numbers the general conclusion that wind turbines are a minor killer is clear. Perhaps you find this source more “official” even if it’s a bit old:
http://www.fws.gov/birds/mortality-fact-sheet.pdf
“Do you listen to yourself when you state these things?” I don’t have to move my lips when reading or writing. Do you?
BTW, can you give an example of “every environmental organization having a collective cow” over the death of an individual bird of a not acutely threatened species killed by an oil derrick or a power plant smokestack? Even one killed by an oil spill. Generally when this kind of stuff is reported it’s when an oil spill is large enough to kill hundreds of birds, and even then most events get ignored by the mainstream press.
REPLY: LOL!
I’m afraid that the Swift ran into a Modest Proposal…
The green fraternity talk about conservation etc but they aren’t interested in nature, only managing and controlling it.
Natural selection has the Panda pencilled in foe extinction, but because the green’s compassion is gauged by their estimation of an organism’s cuddliness and/or intelligence we’re giving the Chinese £2 million a year in the hope that they might have a shag.
omnologos; We have a body and a weapon. No evidence my ass.
Thomas, how many voices do you hear in your head?
TBraunlich, it’s not my area, but a quick search turned up this document about golden eagles:
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/eagle/protect/fnlpermitregs_qas.html
It lists “utility infrastructure development and maintenance, road construction, operation of airports, commercial or residential construction, resource recovery, recreational use, etc.” as areas where permits to kill eagles may be handed out. It’s not as if they get a free hand in killing either, for every eagle killed they have to pay for conservation efforts to ensure another one can be raised. It’s nevertheless possible the place is badly chosen for wind power, I can’t tell.
Regardless of the tremendous bird slaughter, the strategic energy plan from CAGW crowd is basically this:
Step 1: Shut down all forms of reliable energy (coal, gas, nuclear)
Step 2: Replace it with unreliable energy (wind turbines, solar)
Step 3: Install “smart meters” so that your home or business can have it’s supply of energy reduced (or shut off) when there is no energy to deliver (government climate science facilities are exempted, of course)
All is proceeding according to plan. Please note again that the politically connected in the climate industry will be unaffected by any changes…their needs will always be served first. Life is good as a CAGW alarmist…
To moderate the sense of tragedy, I would like to note that swifts do collide with stuff — in particular, with each other. Not often, but you will occasionally see a dead one on the ground where they nest or feed.
I had one fall on my head as I walked across an empty field — apparently, he had had a mid-air collision with a mate. There was nothing else in the air. I picked him up, and while I was checking him out, one of his feet clutched my finger bad enough to pierce the skin. Other than that, he appeared dead — no signs of breathing or heartbeat — and I took it for a post-mortem convulsion. The grip was so tight I thought I needed some sort of surgery to remove his claws from my finger, so I went home to see about that. Ten minutes later, he released my finger, opened his eyes and started breathing, but remained limp for some more time. About an hour later, he kind of composed himself and began turning his head. I sat him on my balcony’s railing and watched. He kept sitting there for several more hours, then took off and joined his flock as if nothing had happened.
I learned a couple things from that incident. If a bird appears dead, it may not necessarily be so. And then, wild animals are jut as error-prone as we are.
BTW – According to…
http://www.fws.gov/birds/mortality-fact-sheet.pdf
…wind turbines kill 33,000 birds per year. However, this doesn’t account for the relatively sparse distribution of wind turbines at present. On a per unit basis, turbines are likely much more harmful to birds than, say, windows, power lines, cars, or cats…
Well Thomas, I see you’re a hard nut to crack. What’s the death of some 6 to 18 million birds and bats annually in Spain alone? Just imagine the carnage worldwide, increasing day by day with the steady advance of Big Wind sucking money from the public through subsidies and expensive electricity rates. Then consider that it’s all for no reason, except to line the pockets of Big Wind owners and investors. Sheesh, Thomas, if you can’t find it in your heart to care about the birds, you could at least care about getting robbed blind.
Link to BBC article.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-23082846
RSPB Scotland said it was possible the migratory bird had been blown off course and had lost its way.
A spokeswoman said: “Whilst the collision of this unusual visitor with a small domestic wind turbine is very unfortunate, incidents of this sort are really very rare.
“Careful choice of location and design of wind farms and turbines prevents, as much as possible, such occurrences happening on a large scale.”
She added: “Wind energy makes a vital contribution towards mitigating the impacts of climate change, which is the biggest threat to our native birds and wildlife.”
Fecking lying b****
Thomas says:
June 28, 2013 at 9:36 am
That FWS link you posted is a perfect display of eco-terror propaganda. It lists strictly oil companies as killing killing 2 million birds but wind farms killing ONLY 33k per year… somehow though building strikes cause 97 million to 976 million deaths per year? WTF add in Com tower a completely non-moving tower killing 4-5 million birds… however could be as many as 40-50 million…
How the hell does a huge blender only kill 33k birds per year but a non-moving com tower kills 40-50 million per year? These numbers are as fake as the smoking TV ads where they claim 400k ppl die a year due to smoking.
There are indeed lots of videos on youtube of large birds being killed by wind turbines. Quite sickening to watch actually.
I heard this story on Radio Scotland yesterday. They made light of it at the end, saying the witnesses were obviously upset at the events and blogged about it on “yes, you’ve guessed it – Twitter”. Seriously, they ended their report with that little joke. Ok, it was funny – I love birds, hate wind ‘farms’, but a joke’s a joke. What is not a joke is being taxed to pay for these useless things industrialising the previously unspoilt beauty of Scotland’s awesome post-glacial rural and wilderness landscapes. Not to mention the new mega-pylons required to take the power south from these wind farms – Beuley to Denny – crossing (ruining) some of Scotland’s most magnificent scenery. All for what?
RE: Thomas says:
June 28, 2013 at 9:36 am
How many bald eagles do cats kill? How many bald eagles crash into picture windows?
How about whooping cranes? http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/05/13/are-wind-turbines-killing-off-the-whooping-crane-population/
If the editorial decisions aren’t to one’s liking, then one can visit another website that tells one what one wants to hear.
In the meantime, kudos to Anthony for reminding us that editorial boards are not objective when choosing which stories to tell.
@Pauls –
Thns blog doesn’t bash environmentalists – it bashes faux environmentalists who blame everything on oil, coal and industry, and who excuse environmental damage done by “renewables” which, on closer inspection, are far dirtier than fossil fuels.
The population of gravely endangered whooping cranes has been reduced by up to half by the wind turbines situated along their migratory flight paths. Where is the green outcry about that? Oh, but if we take down the turbines, der Fuehrer’;s crony capitalist buddies won’t be able to get richer off them.
@temp: Eco-tards are strict utilitarians. Wind turbines kill less birds than evil fossil fuel production, therefore evil fossil fuel production is EVIL EVIL EVIL and birds killed by wind turbines are of no consequence.
This is the cognitive dissonance that is the stuff of religious zealots.
DirkH said:
June 28, 2013 at 9:16 am
…[BBC] points out that wind turbines save more birds than they kill because they mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Which brings us to the question: What climate change have they mitigated over the last 17 years during which there was none?
————————————————
What climate change have they mitigated? There was no change over the last 17 years.
They’re working!!!
(just kidding)
Got windows, Got Cars, Got Mobiles, Got Cats, then your birddeath footprint is large!
Window strikes – estimated to kill 97 to 976 million birds/year
Communication towers – estimates of bird kills are impossible to make because of the lack of data, but totals could easily be over 5 million birds/year, and possibly as many as 50 million.
Electrocutions kill tens of thousands of birds per year. This occurs mainly when large birds such as raptors make contact between a live electrical wire and a ground such as a pole. The relatively small number of birds affected belies the significance of this threat, since species such as Golden Eagle are more susceptible.
Cars may kill 60 million birds per year.
Wind turbines may kill 33,000 birds per year, and, as in the case of electrocutions, these birds tend to be large and scarce (e.g. raptors)
Pesticides may kill 72 million birds per year or possibly many more.
Oil spills kill hundreds of thousands of birds a year or more
Oil and wastewater pits may kill up to 2 million birds per year.
Lead poisoning – kills unknown numbers of birds each year, but Bellrose (many years ago) estimated that about 4% of the waterfowl population dies annually due to lead poisoning, and the California Condor recovery team stated that lead poisoning was the primary cause of the condor population decline over the last 50 years
Hunting – as a point of reference the carefully-managed annual waterfowl hunt kills about 15 million birds a year in North America. This, of course, is balanced by extensive and well-funded management and conservation efforts so hunting is not a threat to the population of any North American bird,
Domestic and Feral Cats – may kill 500 million birds per year or more.
Simple solution: Acquire the Rodney King video of windmills.
The new HIT film, “Bye-bye Birdie”. Coming to a bird sancturary near you soon!
PS: Note it’s an Eagle. Good for golf, bad for birds.
sergei MK,
So if you shoot yourself in the foot, it makes sense to shoot yourself in your other foot? Just because birds fly into windows is no excuse for windmills.
And we’re not talking sparrows here. Windmills kill thousands of raptors.
I have found a windmill that won’t pureé birds!
If they could just get it to generate power – it keeps putting engineers to sleep.
Caleb, here is another blog that to me seems to be more reliable, or at least more careful about having references, that denies that wind turbines are the cause of whooping crane deaths:
http://barnardonwind.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/wind-farms-are-being-built-along-whooping-crane-migration-paths-is-there-any-risk-to-them/
instead water management practices in Texas seems to be the culprit.
Rationalizing bad political policy has led to a lot of serious world problems. No windmills, no dead birds.