[va-bird] Fw: [Vaforestwatch] Avian mortality event - Backbone Mtn, WV

["Jason Rutledge" <rutledge@xxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "christina wulf" <shewulf@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "VAFW List Serve" <vaforestwatch@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 10:48 AM
Subject: [Vaforestwatch] Avian mortality event - Backbone Mtn, WV


> Another heads-up on using Central Appalachian ridges to site turbines
> for generating wind energy:
> 
> *
> "Also, avian mortality events probably will not be detected/reported
> after the first few years of a wind power facility's operation since
> mandated searches to look for dead birds are limited to this initial
> period."
> *
> *
> 
> >From Dan Boone - Audubon Naturalist Society:
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> The following Notice from Dr. Paul Kerlinger describes the deadliest
> bird mortality event ever recorded at a wind power facility in the U.S.
>  The bodies of about 30 warblers, vireos and other songbirds were found
> after colliding with tall wind turbines at the Mountaineer Wind Energy
> Center on Backbone Mountain in WV.  The bird kill coincided with the
> period of dense fog that affected the mountain region just prior to the
> Memorial Day weekend.  This mortality episode involves nearly twice as
> many dead birds as were reported for the previous largest incident at a
> wind power facility.  Unfortunately this sad event validates concerns
> over the impact to nocturnal migrant songbirds from wind turbines sited
> along prominent ridgetops in the Central Appalachians.
> 
> The bird mortality event at the Backbone Mountain wind energy facility
> may have begun earlier than Dr. Kerlinger acknowledges [be advised that
> his Notice incorrectly dated the days of the event leading up to the
> Memorial Day weekend].  Turbine maintenance workers saw a bobcat
> scavenging dead birds near a turbine on Thursday, May 22.  They
> reported this observation on the following day to the field biologist
> who was searching for dead birds elsewhere on the facility - thus
> triggering a special search and the discovery of a large number of
> freshly-killed birds.  The bobcat has a den near the turbine where most
> of the dead birds were found.  It is not known how many of the bird
> carcasses were carried off the site to feed bobcat young or removed by
> other scavengers.  However, nearly all of the songbirds found dead on
> Friday were considered to be "extremely fresh" - no more than a few
> hours old, so it is possible that the bobcat and perhaps other
> scavengers removed most of the birds that died on the night of May
> 21-22 (and on other nights?).
> 
> It is necessary to recognize that the reported size of this bird kill
> does not accurately reflect the number of songbirds that actually died
> due to collision with the turbines.  Scavenger or searcher efficiency
> "correction factors" should be used to multiply the total avian
> mortality that searchers "found" to compensate for the numbers of dead
> birds that searchers missed AND those that were carried off by bobcats,
> ravens, raccoons or other scavengers.  The turbines at this wind power
> facility are checked only twice a week for dead birds.  Research of
> bird kills at communication towers has documented that most songbird
> carcasses are removed during their first day by scavengers.
> Unfortunately only a very cursory investigation is planned for this
> facility to gauge the impact that scavengers may have in deriving an
> accurate estimate of the total bird mortality.
> 
> Dr. Kerlinger speculates that this mortality event is due to improper
> management of the facility (i.e., leaving lights on at a substation
> near one of the turbines).  While the lights may have been a
> contributing factor in this large mortality event, Dr. Kerlinger's
> claim that this bird kill was caused by the lights cannot be
> substantiated.  Also, there appears to be no evidence for his assertion
> that a few birds collided with the lighted substation.  They could have
> been killed by collision with the nearby turbine or its blades.
> 
> Lets hope that leaving bright lights on near the turbines is the only
> dumb thing the manager will do to raise their facility's bird kill
> total.  However, it is important to recognize that the lease agreements
> which windfarm developers maintain with landowners do not preclude the
> establishment of bright light sources near turbines.  For example, at
> the proposed wind energy facility on Backbone Mountain in Maryland,
> numerous lease agreements involve properties used for hunting camps and
> cabins.  Given the inexorable trend to develop and "improve" property,
> is it not but a matter of time before some bright light sources are
> installed by private landowners who leased their property for a
> windfarm?
> 
> Also, avian mortality events probably will not be detected/reported
> after the first few years of a wind power facility's operation since
> mandated searches to look for dead birds are limited to this initial
> period.  Estimates of bird mortality at a wind power facility may not
> be reliable indicators of true mortality if future management and
> land-use adjacent to turbines are significantly different from the
> conditions initially studied.
> 
> Dr. Kerlinger wishes to draw a parallel between the bird kill at the
> Backbone Mountain, WV windfarm and the catastrophic bird mortality at a
> natural gas pumping facility in Kansas where thousands of longspurs
> died - in part due to collision with nearby tall structures.  However,
> there are many records of bird kills involving similarly large numbers
> found at lighted structures atop high ridges in the Appalachians -
> especially during fog or other inclement weather.  So fog, high
> elevation and lights are well-known factors in many incidents of avian
> mortality in the mountain region.
> 
> Lights, however, are not always a factor in large bird kills, as
> documented in a published account of another WV bird mortality event
> involving the Sand Springs Fire Tower atop a prominent ridge that
> parallels Backbone Mountain (in nearby Coopers Rock State Forest).  A
> couple of days after a bad weather period during fall migration, a
> total of 73 songbirds were found dead around the base of this
> relatively short structure (only 100-ft tall with no guywires), which
> had no lights on it or anywhere in the vicinity that could have served
> to attract nocturnal migrants [see: Wylie, Bill. 1977. Bird kill at
> Chestnut Ridge. Redstart 44(2): 65].
> 
> Dan Boone
> 301-704-5632
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <PKerlinger@xxxxxxx>
> To: <fyoung@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <Gregeddy@xxxxxxx>;
> <Linda_S_Smith@xxxxxxx>;
> <rtallman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <wperdue@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
> <Jim_Lindsay@xxxxxxx>; <Sam.Enfield@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, May 26, 2003 5:05 PM
> Subject: Mortality Event Notice
> 
> All:  A mortality event occurred on the night of May 23-24 at the
> Mountaineer wind plant.  A total of about 25-27 birds were found dead
> at turbine number 23 and the substation, which is 40 meters from the
> turbine.  A small number of these birds collided with the substation
> structure itself.  The birds involved were a variety of species
> including Blackpoll, Magnolia, Canada, and other warblers, Red-eyed
> Vireos, cuckoos, and other songbirds.  This event occurred on the same
> night that the 100-car pileup occurred on Route 68 in Maryland - in
> dense fog.
> 
> The event is, without a doubt, attributable to the presence of 6 bright
> lights that were on constantly at the substation.  Jessica Kerns (one
> of our field biologists conducting the searches) called me on Friday
> evening, May 24, to report the event.  Efforts to have the lights
> extinguished were made immediately and the lights went off within 48
> hours.  They were on the night following the event, but no dead birds
> were found on the following day.  Jim Lindsay of FPL was notified and
> he, in turn, notified the plant manager that the lights should be
> turned off at the substation on all nights.
> 
> Subsequent checks revealed only 1-2 birds at more than 20 turbines
> checked.  It should further be noted that a proportion of the small
> number of birds found prior to the May 24 event were also found at
> turbine number 23.  Again, the lights at the substation probably
> attracted the birds.
> 
> Although this mortality event was unexpected, there is some good news.
> There were almost no fatalities at the other turbines, even those with
> FAA lighting.  What this strongly suggests is that the type of lighting
> on the turbines at Mountaineer do not attract migrants as do bright
> lights or communication tower lights that are on constantly (see the
> FAA obstruction lighting guidance document for the difference between
> communication tower lighting and wind turbine lighting).
> 
> This is analogous to the infamous Kansas bird kill involving large
> numbers of lapland longspurs in January 1998.  That kill was at first
> blamed on communication towers, until several of us realized that the
> natural gas pumping station had bright, sodium vapor lamps that flooded
> the night sky.  The birds there collided with fences, towers, natural
> gas infrastructure, and even were impaled on wheat straw.  Those lights
> have not been extinguished.  I suspect that many other birds collided
> with brightly lit structures along the ridge at other locations.
> 
> To date, there have been only about 10 fatalities found at turbines
> other than turbine number 23 at Mountaineer.
> 
> Those of us who consult on wind power projects routinely admonish
> developers regarding bright lighting.  This event underscores the
> importance of avoiding bright lights at wind plants, as well as all
> other man-made structures.
> 
> I will provide more information to you in the montly report.  I will
> wait until about the 10th of June to send that to you, when the spring
> migration is finished.  We will then have an entire season of migration
> to evaluate impacts.
> 
> Paul Kerlinger, Ph.D.
> Curry & Kerlinger, LLC
> 609-884-2842
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Christina Wulf
> Virginia Forest Watch
> Charlottesville, VA
> 434-971-7678
> www.virginiaforestwatch.org
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Vaforestwatch mailing list
> Vaforestwatch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://lists.ntelos.net/mailman/listinfo/vaforestwatch
>

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[va-bird] Fw: [Vaforestwatch] Avian mortality event - Backbone Mtn, WV