Radar used to avoid wind farm bird collisions
Miami Herald
“The two companies that run the first wind farms on the coast, Iberdrola Renewables of Spain and Babcock & Brown of Australia, recognized the risk bad weather could bring. Most migrating birds fly high above the range of turbines, many of them at night. But they don’t fly through clouds and storms, and when bad weather rolls in, migrating birds fly down to wait it out. The two companies voluntarily installed radar developed for the military and NASA to prevent collisions with birds by aircraft and the space shuttle. It’s the first time this radar has been used anywhere in the world to shut down wind turbines if a large number of birds is headed toward them. Conservationists said it’s a good step, but they’re still concerned that the companies haven’t given permission to outside groups to check for bird fatalities during the migration period in April and May. Legal efforts to block the wind farms on the coast failed last year, and the federal government and Texas, like most states, don’t regulate wind farms.” [more here]
Why aren’t birds bigger?
Science Daily
“Why aren’t birds larger? Fifteen-kilogram swans hold the current upper size record for flying birds, although the extinct Argentavis of the Miocene Epoch in Argentina is estimated to have weighed 70 kilograms, the size of an average human. In a forthcoming article in PLoS Biology, Sievert Rohwer, and his colleagues at the Burke Museum at the University of Washington, provide evidence that maximum body size in birds is constrained by the amount of time it takes to replace the flight feathers during molt.” [more here]
Exxon in the spotlight for harming birds
KSN News
“More environmental problems are coming to Exxon – this time in Kansas. The oil giant is facing criminal charges for unlawfully killing migratory birds in three Kansas counties. The federal charges stem from tanks and other facilities operated by Exxon or its agents in Kearney, Stevens and Morton counties in southwest Kansas. The complaint, filed in U.S District Court in Wichita Thursday, alleges the company killed “at least seven birds of inderminate species and three owls, which died after contact with hydrocarbons.” Hydrocarbons are often found in petroleum products and, according to Jim Mason with the Great Plains Nature Center, are extremely dangerous to birds. ”It’s as bad for them as it would be for you or I if we drank raw petroleum,” Mason said. The complaint specifically alleges the company harmed three owls. Owls and other predatory birds are specifically protected under federal law, meaning it’s illegal to kill or even harm one. “[more here]
What is causing bird population shifts?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Something is powerfully affecting the birds wintering in northern Alabama, increasing the numbers of many, bringing new species and causing others to dwindle. Scientists don’t know whether it’s climate change, a recovery from the banned pesticide DDT or some mystery factor. Since the 1960s, the numbers of the birds in the reservoirs and refuges in northern Alabama have almost flip-flopped. Almost every species’ numbers are either climbing steeply or dwindling. And other birds are appearing for the first time. Pelicans, terns and gulls by the thousands now winter north of Birmingham. ”When I was a boy growing up in Decatur, a gull, a pelican — those were all seashore birds,” said Keith Hudson, the state’s nongame biologist for the northern half of Alabama. Now, the former beach birds spend the winter in the reservoirs of the Tennessee River or at Decatur’s Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. And they are joined by nearly every fish-eating bird or duck found in northern Alabama. Almost all are on the increase during the winter. On the other end of the food chain, the numbers of tiny seed-eating sparrows also are soaring. “[more here]
New York to cull Canada Geese
JusticeNewsFlash.com
“The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, and the Port Authority has brought a new meaning to “your goose is cooked”. Bloomberg announced a plan to wipe out at least 2,000 Canadian geese living within a five-mile radius of LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, as reported by the New York Daily News. The plan to target at least 2,000 Canadian geese living and nesting within a five-mile radius of LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, and then gas them on nearby Rikers Island, ruffled the feathers of many citizens across the United States. New York politicians say federal wildlife officials have been instructed to round up the Canadian geese during their molting season when the geese are unable to fly. The target areas for collecting the geese include 40 city parks near the major New York airports, such as Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and Fort Totten. The Port Authority is also planning to train and arm personnel to shoot down birds if an emergency situation arises. “[more here]
Ancient bird nest found
BBC Earth News
“A 2,500-year-old bird’s nest has been discovered on a cliff in Greenland. The nesting site is still continually used by gyrfalcons, the world’s largest species of falcon, and is the oldest raptor nest ever recorded. Three other nests, each over 1,000 years old, have also been found, one of which contains feathers from a bird that lived more than 600 years ago. However, ornithologists fear climate change may soon drive the birds from these ancient nesting sites. Gyrfalcons live circumpolar to the Arctic. The birds range in colour from being almost exclusively white in Greenland to usually black in Labrador in Canada. Like many falcons, they do not build nests out of sticks and twigs, but typically lay eggs in bowl-shaped depressions they scrape into existing ledges or old nests made by other birds such as ravens.” [more here]
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