How to avoid killing birds with wind turbines

In summary: I don't know, maybe shooting things at them, what else could be done?In summary, some birds are killed by wind turbines, but it's not clear why this is a problem. It seems like something fairly simple could be done to deter birds from flying into the blades, like using lights, sound, or scarecrows.
  • #106
this is pretty stupid. What about roads and cars? every year enormous numbers of animals get hit by cars.. So why are those animals not extinct?

windmills are not going to kill all the birds. birds will learn to shun the areas occupied by windmills.
 
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  • #107
henxan said:
My final point is: is this really a problem? A couple of birds being killed?

And, to you saladsamurai: do you have certain data of the adaption time until birds learns that they should not venture into a area occupied by wind power plant?

No. Do you? I believe that the OP was looking for solutions to a particular problem not useless comments by some heckler who calls into question the validity of his problem. That's all.

If I came to PF looking for advice on a particular matter, I would be quite agitated to get feedback that merely told me that 'that isn't worth fussing over.'

Frankly most of your comments have been uninformative and closed-minded.

Happy New Year,
Casey
 
  • #108
Birds are serious issue when acts as pest. Several bird control tools are recommended as the best way to prevent birds from nesting and roofing on home buildings and other property. These harmless deterrents and repellers are simply used to just drive birds away from the fields and buildings. Each and every year, many building owners spent lots of time and money to clean and restore damage done to the property by them. Bird droppings can also cause serious liability risk and threaten to get slipped.
 
  • #109
Bird running into wind turbine blades and killing themselves appears to a much bigger problem than many people want the public to know. In fact a single cluster of wind generators in a year or two could kill more birds than the Santa Barbara, CA mini-oil spill, which caused a huge media stir prompting President Richard Nixon to change the EPA laws.
 
  • #110
How about recording a raptor of some type in an attack dive and mimic the sound with whistles.
Also some grating strips on the blades would reflect different spectrum's of sun light based on the angle of the blade. Most birds do follow VFR, so night is not much issue.
Some very bright blade tip LEDs might also let the birds see the swept area as an object.
 
  • #111
I've have been a little involved in the issue of migrating birds flying into radio towers at night. To my knowledge no one is going out to the base of the towers every morning during migrating season and counting dead birds so we really don't know how big of a problem it is.

It seems to me that ornithologists have noticed a decline in bird populations and are looking for a culprit. Besides wind turbines and radio towers, I've heard that house cats are extraordinarily efficient at catching birds.
 

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