Boom, Cackle& Whine

Birds make themselves heard above wind farm noise

- Andrew McKechnie

Wind farms are rapidly becoming prominent features of landscapes around the world. This is good news for the environment, because each turbine represents one small step towards renewable energy replacing coal-fired power stations and other fossil-fuel technologies that contribute directly to global warming. But wind energy is not free of environmental impacts and it has long been known that the farms can pose a significant hazard to birds (and bats) flying in the vicinity of the turbines.

Wind farms erected before much was known about the dangers they pose have, in some cases, proved to be very bad news for birds. California’s now-infamous Altamont Pass wind farm killed several thousand birds a year, many of which were raptors. Even in South Africa, where the environmental impact assessment process for wind farms has been guided by lessons learnt at Altamont Pass and elsewhere, the past few years have seen mortalities involving several threatened species, including recent Cape Vulture deaths in the Eastern Cape.