Tag Archives: Birds

Wildlife

Wolfe Island Bird Report #5

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Stantec has just released report #5, which covers the first half of 2011 on Wolfe Island.  This was generally an uneventful report, with many of the patterns established in the first 4 reports continuing.  At least I don’t have as many criticisms of Stantec as I did in my critique of their report #4.  For instance, the power production on the days they did the survey wasn’t always minimal.  Still, these reports continue to document just how much Wolfe Island has been impacted.  Obviously bird populations vary widely from year to year for a number of reasons, and Stantec takes advantage of variation to present every possible reason why the populations are down, except of course to blame their turbines.  Here’s the summary.

  • Birds: 31 carcasses found, adjusted to 131, down from the report of a year ago.
  • Raptors: 7 carcasses found, adjusted to 16, up a bit.
  • Bats: 7 carcasses found, adjusted to 41, down from last year.
  • Winter raptor density: improved from last year, at 0.54/km.
  • Notifications: 6, half for raptors, half for Bobolinks. Continue reading Wolfe Island Bird Report #5 →
Wildlife

The KFN Workshop

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On March 8, 2011 the Kingston Field Naturalists sponsored a one-day workshop on bird migrations and the effects of wind turbines.  Kingston is in Ontario, Canada, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario and at the head of the Thousand Islands.  Further, it is located roughly halfway between Algonquin Park and Adirondack Park.   To say the Kingston area is important for wildlife, especially birds, is to merely state the obvious.

After the Wolfe Island project was put into operation, the KFN became more and more concerned about the effect the project was having on birds.  With the Ostrander Point and Amherst Island and Cape Vincent projects also well advanced that concern was deepened, and thus this workshop was sponsored.

Below are my notes on the speakers.  The main event is at the bottom, where John Bennett, the executive director of the Canadian Sierra Club, presented why he supports wind turbines and the resulting “discussion” made the Kingston newspaper. Continue reading The KFN Workshop →