After years of lawsuits, a settlement was finally reached early this year to try to reduce bird kills at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in Alameda County. But critics charge that the new agreement makes an already bad situation even worse...........The avian mortality problem at Altamont illustrates the complex nature of energy production-even "good" sources such as wind have impacts. Smallwood is "aghast that our natural resource agencies-federal and state-allow the companies to do this when as an individual I can get a shotgun and shoot a golden eagle, but I'd go to jail."

Now something else catches your eye on the horizon, and as you edge closer to the Clear Creek Wind Farm, you'll see white turbines with three huge helicopter-like blades dotted all over the landscape. Plans for those blades raised the concerns of biologists who aren't fooled by the appearance of wasteland in northeastern Weld and know how important the habitat is to raptors and the occasional ground bird. There was good reason for their concerns: When the first experimental wind farm was erected years ago in California, hundreds, even thousands, of raptors were wiped out by the blades. And the area Cedar Creek creators chose was prime raptor habitat.

The Pennsylvania Biological Survey has gone to bat for the bats in a swirling policy debate over whether commercial wind power development should be permitted in state forests. The debate pits advocates of wind power as an alternative energy source against those who fear that windmills are harmful to bats and birds.

Visual impact will result from the proximity of the wind turbines to Jalama Beach County Park and that of an accompanying new power line to Highway 1. The power line could be hidden by use of an overland route to the PG&E substation in Lompoc, but the turbines will be visible from Jalama unless the project is limited to 50 turbines. Also unavoidable will be the destruction of birds and bats killed in collisions with turbine blades. That's what troubles the Audubon Society, the only organized group to raise significant questions about the project. "We are not totally against it," said Tamarah Taaffe, treasurer of the La Purisima chapter of Audubon. "We just want it placed optimally. On any wind farm, placement is the most important thing. Our basic goal was to support it and work with them on placement." Taaffe added, however, that she considered the county's avian studies inadequate. "Their bird studies were like trying to determine how many kids would go to a school by driving by during Easter vacation," she said. Taafe enumerated the long-eared owl, the horned lark and the golden eagle as species at risk. "The blades move at 200 mph at the tip. It looks kind of lazy but they are so massive. Each blade is replaced within a second. That's not terribly slow." The EIR document acknowledges inevitable damage. "We know birds will be killed," said Drude, a county energy specialist. "So we're going to assume the worst. Since we don't know the number, we'll adapt to it. We're suggesting ‘adaptive mitigation.' If there are turbines which are more dangerous (than others) they could be shut down at certain hours or seasons."

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., has written U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials to say that changing wind farm policies based on the chance that migrating whooping cranes might be hurt would send a bad message.

Interest by California-based AES Wind Generation in establishing a large-scale wind energy operation in Gillespie County is being reconsidered, it was learned here Monday. According to a City of Fredericksburg official who asked not to be identified, a letter from a company officer stated that AES SeaWest Inc. of San Diego has decided to discontinue pursuing wind energy in an area north of Fredericksburg that generally stretches between U.S. Highway 87 and RM 965. Instead, the city official related, the company has decided to focus on other areas in Texas. Prompting the decision, he added, was AES' concerns that sensitive species and bat colonies living in the area could be incompatible with large-scale wind energy.

It’s being billed as clean energy technology said Stehn, whose agency initially endorsed wind farms as an alternative to fossil fuels but is “starting to think more and learn more about the potential impact” to migrating species. ....“We’re concerned. These turbine companies need to comply with the Endangered Species Act,” he said, but “apparently they don’t need a federal permit to build wind turbines in many situations so they don’t even have to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service.” The ESA “says you will not take a whooping crane, you will not kill a whooping crane, so they have to figure out how to comply with that.”

While corporate, municipal and utility interests favoring wind turbine development tend to minimize potential damage to birds, no convincing scientific studies support arguments that wind turbines in migration corridors are safe. Quite the contrary, mounting evidence suggests birds and bats are at risk of fatal collisions with turbine blades. In recent testimony before the U.S. Congress, Dr. Michael Fry of the American Bird Conservancy concluded that by the year 2030 as many as 1.8 million birds per year could be killed by wind turbines.

Yet when the National Planning Committee (NPC) approved plans for building a wind turbine farm directly on the path of the migration flyway, SPNI came out in strong opposition..."Of the 90,000 birds migrating over, the flight path of roughly 10,000 passed directly through the air space where the wind turbines are planned. Obviously these birds would have been in great danger of collision with the blades," says Alon. Weekly surveys were conducted during the winter, and daily migration surveys resumed on March 1st, 2005. "During the spring of 2005, bird observers counted another 200,000 plus birds, mostly White Storks of which a minimum of 15,000 crossed over the proposed turbine farm within the range of the blades.

Last month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the bald and golden eagles from the federal Endangered Species List. While eagle populations have grown in every state, we also learned last month that five species of common birds in Pennsylvania are declining at an alarming rate. According to Audubon Pennsylvania, the golden-winged warbler population has declined an astounding 98 percent since 1967, followed by the Eastern meadowlark (86 percent), wood thrush (62 percent), American bittern (59 percent) and ruffed grouse (22 percent). Three of the species depend on forest habitats, one lives in wetlands and the fifth resides in agricultural areas. Five different birds, three different habitats and they are all suffering. That's not good.

NEW BEDFORD - The Boston developer who wants to build a 300-megawatt wind farm in Buzzards Bay called the results of preliminary bird studies "encouraging" but said it is too early to determine whether threats to endangered terns that nest and feed in the bay could kill the $750 million project. "I am fifty-percent comfortable," said Jay Cashman of Patriot Renewables, LLC., a renewable energy subsidiary of his construction company, Jay Cashman Inc.

A rare bird has been killed after getting caught in the blade of a wind turbine in Stirlingshire. The red kite, one of the rarest birds in the UK, was discovered at the Braes of Doune wind farm near Stirling. Wind farm owner Airtricity said the death had been "unfortunate" and added that it had carried out a risk assessment on the red kite population. This, it said, was done in consultation with other agencies such as the RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

The controversy over the bird started brewing during township meetings months earlier. Some residents disputed eagles are anywhere near the township. Other residents debated wind farms and whether the turbines would harm eagles or other birds. The Pennsylvania Game Commission is wondering the same thing. The commission is set to hire a new employee who would investigate mortality rates in birds and bats caused by wind turbines. Wind turbines in some areas have caused bat mortality rates to increase, said Tim Conway, the commission's Northeast Region information and education director.

Golden eagles are gravely threatened by a £200m wind farm scheme proposed for the Hebridean island of Lewis, campaigners have warned. Three of the predatory birds a year could be killed in collisions with turbine blades - the highest mortality from any wind power project in the UK. The figures come from the developer's own environmental statement.

Concern about dangers to Britain's biggest birds of prey from windfarms came as 15 White-tailed Eagle chicks were flown to Scotland for a new comeback scheme. The youngsters, when able to fly, will be released in about two months in the first phase of a new project to restore this species to eastern Scotland where it was wiped out by human persecution almost 200 years ago. Now they [up to 80 more to be released over the next four years] and the new population in the Hebridean islands following a similar, post-1970s re-introduction project will face a new hazard - if they happen to move into areas well stocked with wind turbines.

FPL has looked for good Florida sites for wind power since 2005, Ms. Bennett said, and Hutchinson Island "looks like it's worth pursuing." FPL "wants to coexist as good environmental stewards," and will work with all agencies to avoid impact on birds and wildlife. That's good to know, because the information available about wind energy and wildlife indicates that some impact - literally - is inevitable.

A controversial application for a 14 turbine windfarm in a scenic area of Argyll frequented by young golden eagles will be debated by planners this summer. A proposal by npower renewables to erect a windfarm at Allt Dearg, on moorland south of Lochgilphead overlooking Loch Fyne, was lodged with Argyll and Bute Council a year ago. A host of objections on various grounds came in, including visual impact and the potential adverse impact of the windfarm on golden eagles and other local rare bird species.

The discovery poses a clear challenge in the design and maintenance of a major windfarm proposed by Castle & Cooke for Lana'i. The company is working on plans for a $750 million field of wind generators that would ship power to O'ahu via undersea cable. Conventional windmills are cited by opponents of such structures as a threat to migrating birds. It is not clear yet whether it would be possible to site wind generators out of petrel flight paths, or perhaps to manage the windfarm in a way that warns the birds away from danger. On Kaua'i, researchers use radar to identify flight paths of ‘a'o.

The project today released the "Annual Report for the Maple Ridge Wind Power Project, Post-construction Bird and Bat Fatality Study - 2006" prepared by the consulting firm Curry and Kerlinger (May, 2007). The study concluded that "bird and bat fatalities found at the Maple Ridge turbines were within the range of fatalities found during late summer and fall migration at turbines in the United States."

Wind turbines in Barrow's Tesco car park are being blamed for claiming the lives of seagulls. Kamikaze birds have been coming off second best when clashing with the giant rotating blades of the eco-friendly turbines. The Evening Mail's Cornwallis page recently reported the bodies of three dead gulls were found at the foot of one of the towers two weeks ago. Now a Walney man, who did not wish to be named, has told of his surprise after a trip to buy lunch left him and his partner spitting feathers. After stepping out of their car the pair were splattered with freshly killed seagull remains after another hapless bird flew to its death.