BEINN AN TUIRC WINDFARM, ARGYLL, SCOTLAND - SITED WITHIN A GOLDEN EAGLE BREEDING RANGE - and, bordering it, another windfarm: DEUCHERAN HILL.

In 2005 a report was published by D Walker, M McGrady, A McCluskie, M Madders & D R A McLeod. It concludes that "more data are needed to clarify the impact of windfarms on eagles". Yet, windfarms-anywhere advocates hail it as proof that eagles may share their breeding range with a windfarm or two. 

This conclusion is erroneous:

- Monitoring for dead birds was not conducted at the B. & T. windfarm. One or more eagles may have been killed: we shall never know. 

- Eagles, as shown on Figure 7b, were seen flying close to wind turbines 4 times in 2.3 years (2002, 2003 and January-April 2004). Observation time was, in that period, 316 hours. If an observer had been watching the eagles every day, 10 hours a day, he might have seen the eagles flying in the danger zone 365 x 2.3y. x 10h / 316h = 26.5 more times - i.e.: 4 x 26.5 = 106 flights in the danger zone. In short: the eagles are definitely at risk at Beinn an Tuirc. In fact, the resident eagles may be dead as we speak: over 2 years have passed since the study ended. It is not impossible either that they were killed at an early stage, and replaced by newcomers.

- In addition, we note the following on page 30, (paragraph before "Grid Analysis"): "one to 6 observations of intruding eagles were made per year. These are not included in our analyses". Applying our 26.5 correction factor, this means that 26 to 159 additional eagle flights are to be considered yearly, some of them likely to occur in the windfarm areas. But they were not considered. This is an unfortunate decision by the authors: are intruding eagles expendable?

- The report also states, page 38: "It remains likely that any fledglings reared at the site, intruders, or new "naïve" replacement breeders are at greatest risk of collision". 
This is a sensible remark, but SNH* did not read that part of the report, obviously, as they do not oppose an extension of the windfarm.       * SNH = Scottish Natural Heritage, a Scottish government administration.

- Finally, the resident pair is now improductive. The last juvenile was fledged in 1997, before the windfarm-related human activity began. Before that, the resident pair had 0.48 young reared per breeding attempt (about normal for Scotland). I quote Mike Gregory, the Argyll expert mentioned on page 38: "I have looked out my monitoring data for the Beinn an Tuirc eagles. Construction of both windfarms took place in 2001 so I prefer to consider the period up to and including 2000. From 1969 to 2000 incl. there were 25 known breeding attempts [i.e. where eggs were laid] of which 12 were successful giving a rate of 0.48 young reared per breeding attempt. In comparison the years 2001 to 2005 have had 5 attempts and all have failed giving a rate of zero.
The paper quotes a rate of 0.14 for the 'study' period by including the year 1997 when Mike Madders first started survey work for Scottish Power and that was the last year that a chick was reared..." (source: private email from M. Gregory, available upon request).  

Conclusion: The Beinn an Tuirc windfarm is harmful to eagles. Yet, this report has been accepted by SNH as "proof" that windfarms and eagles can live together on the same territory. As a result, more windfarms are being planned on eagle ranges throughout Scotland, and no consideration is given to the cumulative effect this will have on the chances for survival of its two eagle species. 

This is an example of a scientific study that was misinterpreted and misused to suit the Scottish Executive's own interests. The saddest part is that ornithologists made the choice to look the other way, betraying the cause of the birds. Many stand to gain financially.

Note:  At another windfarm on a golden eagle range, Bein Ghlas, the eagles have disappeared. Says SNH: they were "displaced". But this is unlikely:

1) there is no proof that they moved elsewhere: they have actually "disappeared".

2) no monitoring for mortality has been carried out at the windfarm. So there is no valid reason to rule out that they were killed – it is indeed a likely possibility.

3) evidence from around the world show that eagles are not "displaced" by windfarms. On the contrary, they are attracted to them. Dr Smallwood found that golden eagles fly close to wind turbines twice longer than expected by chance:

"raptors spent significantly more time flying at close proximity to turbine blades ... than 51-100 m away ... or >100 m away … Analyzing the total number of minutes of flight time reveals that something about wind turbines may attract red-tailed hawks to fly near turbines and at dangerous heights. Similarly, American kestrels flew in proximity level 1 [ie 1-50m from turbine] nearly four times longer than expected by chance, golden eagles two times longer, and northern harriers three times longer" . 
www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/33829.pdf 

Mark Duchamp
http://spaces.msn.com/mark-duchamp