Till now the developers have implied that it would be out of sight and (they hoped) out of mind. They've described Long Gully as a "largely uninhabited area of marginal farmland ... in a relatively isolated location."

But this week we have discovered that the windfarm (if they get resource consent to build it) won't be so isolated after all. It will be "west of Brooklyn and south of Karori" so it will have many neighbours.

One of its biggest neighbours will be the Karori wildlife sanctuary, which is worried that native birds could be killed by the rotating blades of the Long Gully turbines.

The closest turbines will be 1.3km from the sanctuary. And though the birds won't be complaining about the noise (as the people of Makara are doing), they could be in danger from the blades.

Wellington is one of many places, worldwide, with concerns about the threat to birds from windfarms. An American website lists a total of 446 reports about the impact of windfarms on birds , with sources including the New York Times and Newsweek. The site also carries 143 reports about the impact on bats.

So it seems that the sanctuary is right to be concerned about its native birds. Brooklyn residents also have concerns, and they're meeting on Thursday night to discuss them.

Long Gully will impact on other parts of the city too. As the photo in the Dominion Post this morning makes clear, the turbines will be visible from Island Bay.