FW: [BCNnet] Sun-Times article: Bird Watchers Comfortable(with 10new wind turbines in Chicago)

Tue Jan 24 21:12:31 CST 2006

Thanks go to Steve for his constructive comments.  I should have mentioned
that in our discussions with the City one of the key points of agreement was
that BCN would have access and the opportunity for monitoring the Daley
Plaza sites.   

Donnie Dann

Highland Park/Lake County

donniebird at yahoo.com 

  _____  

From: bcnnet-bounces at ece.iit.edu [mailto:bcnnet-bounces at ece.iit.edu] On
Behalf Of Steve Bailey
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 7:35 PM
To: bcnnet at ece.iit.edu
Subject: RE: [BCNnet] Sun-Times article: Bird Watchers Comfortable(with
10new wind turbines in Chicago)

Hi all,
        Although Donnie makes some very valid points, that still does not
negate the potentiality that a lot of birds could loose their lives if wind
turbines are placed atop tall buildings along the Chicago lakefront.
Although what relatively few studies that have been done have found
relatively few bird deaths, i imagine that it all has to do with the siting
of the turbines.  The wind farm near Paw Paw in north-central Illinois seems
to have been sited pretty well, as it is in a pretty wide open area, off any
flyway of any significance, and the turbines are pretty much in the middle
of ag fields, probably the most depauparate of all habitats in Illinois.  I
actually pulled off the interstate (I-39) to look at this "farm" a year or
two ago.
        However, placing the turbines atop some of the tallest buildings in
downtown Chicago could be a BIG mistake, given that this is a relatively
major flyway.  And if Illinois is not on a migratory bird flyway, than there
have been a lot of preeminent ornithologists in this state that didn't know
what they were talking about!  For those that don't think Illinois is on a
major flyway, they should check out Dr. Frank Bellrose's classic "Ducks,
Geese, and swans of North America".  Although waterfowl would likely not be
affected by such wind turbines as they usually fly pretty high-up during
migration, passerines follow some of the same "lines of flight".  Did nobody
pay any attention to the many radar images that were produced and shown in
various venues (including in the Chicago area) by former U of I graduate
student Rob Diehl?  His images showed large mushrooms of migrants that would
literally "explode" from around the Chicagoland area at night during
migration, including right along the Chicago lakefront.  Many birds were
also shown to be out over the lake, then reconnoitering back to dry land in
Chicago lakefront parks and further inland to forest preserves.  Many of
these birds would wind up coming in low in the morning, especially in fall
when fog and other climatic conditions associated with the different
temperatures of the air over the lake as opposed to dry land, cause birds to
fly much lower than normal, either because of fog or other visibility
problems.  I think all of this has been observed by most Chicagoland birders
who have birded lakefront parks, and the consequences of even having
buildings with lights in such a location is exactly why there is now  bird
collision monitors helping the injured birds that hit the windows of these
buildings.  Of course many more often die, and are never seen because gulls
and other scavengers devour them within the first couple of hours in the
morning, or they are cleaned off sidewalks by building maintenance personel.
It seems to me this is one of the worst places that wind turbines could be
located, and I am not alone in my thoughts when I have talked about such a
thing with other INHS scientists.  I hope I am wrong, that this is a BIG
"accident waiting to happen" once these turbines are sited on Chicago
buildings, which sounds like it is already a done deal.
        One other thing to consider is that in several studies that have
been done, deaths of bats actually outnumber deaths of birds at some of
these turbine farms, and as of yet nobody seems to know why.  It is a shame
that there has to all of a sudden be a rush to get wind farms up and running
before enough study has been made of the current wind farms.  A majority of
the wind farms that have been studied have been out west, where passerine
migration is a lot different than migration here in the east.   There are
not as many strong "pulses' of migrating birds (represented by lower
densities), but instead it is more of a trickle compared to migration in the
east.  Also, passerines out west tend to follow more pronounced
topographical features, such as mountains and valleys.  Apples need to be
compared with apples, not oranges, and I personally think that the jury is
still out on the effects of these wind turbines and their affects on
migrating birds, especially in areas east of the Mississippi River where the
bulk of neotropical migrants migrate through.  There are a lot of bird
species that are headed southeast in fall and northwest in spring, that find
themselves at the bottleneck that is the Chicagoland, Lake Michigan
shoreline.  Just one good example is the Black-throated Blue Warbler which
is MUCH more common in the Chicagoland area than anywhere else in the state.
That is because the bulk of this birds population that breeds to the
northwest of Illinois travels around the south end of Lake Michigan, before
fanning out over Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc. to breeding areas in those
states and points northward.  Although the migrant population of the
Black-throated Blue Warbler through Illinois is relatively tiny compared to
areas farther to the east, there are several other species which are much
more common, and are making this same kind of passage around the south end
of Lake Michigan, before turning back northward in spring, and more easterly
in fall.  This is not to mention those species simply heading south but are
coming from the north or northeast and are using the western shoreline of
Lake Michigan.  Hopefully further studies will be conducted on "eastern"
wind turbine farms before Illinois goes "whole hog" into the wind turbine
industry.  There may be some easily made changes in design that could be
made (if they indeed are deadly to numbers of migrant passerines), before
too many farms are sited.

Steve Bailey
Rantoul (Champaign Co.)
sdbailey at mail.inhs.uiuc.edu

Steven D. Bailey
CTAP Ornithologist
Illinois Natural History Survey
1816 South Oak St.
Champaign, Illinois 61820
Phone: 217/244-2174
Fax: 217/ 265-5110
sdbailey at mail.inhs.uiuc.edu 
Visit the CTAP homepage and On-line data at http://ctap.inhs.uiuc.edu
<http://ctap.inhs.uiuc.edu/>  
Look for on-line INHS biological data at http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu
<http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/> 

At 04:08 PM 1/24/2006 -0600, you wrote:

BCN friends,

On this issue it s important to recognize that the choice is not wind or
nothing--our society, even with increased energy efficiency, demands a
steadily growing supply of electricity. The question we must all ask
ourselves is: if not wind, then what sources of energy should we use? 

Environmental Impacts of Electricity Sources 

                                                            WIND
NUCLEAR         COAL        OIL*      NATURAL GASWind
Nuclear                      Coal                  Natural Gas 

Global Warming Pollution                              None
None                         Yes                   Yes
Yes
YYeses                    YYes 

Air Pollution                                                      None
None                         Yes                   Yes
LimitedYLes                                                      Limited 

Mercury                                                              None
None                         Yes                    Yes
None 

Mining/Extraction                                            None
Yes                           Yes                    Yes
YesYes
Yes                            Yes 

Waste                                                                  None
Yes                           Yes                    YesYes   Yes   None 

Habitat Impacts                                                   Yes
Limited to waste     Yes                    Yes                   Yes

*Foreign policy considerations are significant.Ye

*to YYesesLs                                                      LiLLmited
Yes                               Yes 

According to a paper prepared for the 2002 International Partners in Flight
conference, of every 10,000 human-related bird deaths in the U.S. today,
wind plants cause less than one, and if wind power were developed to the
same extent as hydropower today (6% of U.S. power supply), of every 10,000
human-related bird deaths in the U.S. today, wind plants would cause 9.
(Some of this material came from the American Wind Energy Association, an
obviously biased source but the readers can judge yourselves as to its
validity as well as what is the more bird-friendly energy source). 

But whether you agree or not that wind turbines are a preferred energy
source, all birders should realize that increasing numbers of wind turbines
are inevitable.  We can stand on the sidelines and rail against them, or we
can be a positive force in the debate by urging that they be properly
designed and sited in areas where the least possible bird mortality will
result.

Donnie Dann

Highland Park/Lake County

donniebird at yahoo.com 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://screamer.ece.iit.edu/pipermail/bcnnet/attachments/20060124/6c9a55f9/attachment-0001.html