Wind turbines and migrants - Kenn Kaufmann

Here is a nice article about the issue with wind turbines and birds in NW Ohio along Lake Erie:

http://nimsoh.blogspot.com/2010/11/long-nights-journey-into-death.html

a successful season

Although the birds are still moving through the migration corridor, we have successfully completed our surveys along the N. Shore. We ended with a fantastic day of Purple finches, Snow Buntings, Red Crossbills, Rough-legged hawks, Bald and Golden Eagles. After data is entered I will post our totals.

Purple Finches and Crows

After several days of easterly winds, the birds are now again moving in numbers near the Shore. At Silver Bay today, impressive Purple Finch and American Crow flights were observed. We are still waiting for some of our northern species to make a showing (Rough-legged hawks, Redpolls, Snow Buntings, Golden Eagles). Maybe tomorrow?

Tomorrow we will be at Pincushion Mountain up the Gunflint Trail, Grand Marais. Sunrise is at 7:15am. See you there!

The Migration is back on.

After a few slow days along the North Shore, the short-distance migrants are on the move again... in the thousands. Robins, Rusty Blackbirds, Pipits, and Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers make up the bulk of the movement.

A researcher will be at the Knife River Wayside on Thursday Oct 7th, Wolf Rock near Castle Danger (off of the Superior Hiking Trail) on Friday Oct 8th, and the Lax Lake Overlook on either Saturday or Sunday depending on wind direction. If the winds are out of the east, we generally see less birds so if west winds occur on Sunday and not Saturday, we will survey Lax Lake on Sunday instead.

The arrival of the short-distance migrants...

Although some of the long distance migrants (vireos, thrushes, most warblers) are still flying by, I would say the migration is now entering the push for the short-distance migrants. We are again seeing 1000s of birds almost every morning along The Shore. This morning's count included Robins, Rusty Blackbirds, American Pipits, Grackles, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and much more. I've also seen Bluebirds and Bohemian Waxwings moving. The raptors continue to be sharp-shinned hawks, kestrels, and Bald Eagles, but now the Goshawks and Red-tailed hawks are also on the move.

Tomorrow (Friday, Oct 1st) a researcher will be on Tofte Peak in Temperance State Park. On Saturday, Oct 2nd, a researcher will be on Pincushion Mountain (up the Gunflint Trail out of Grand Marais). Please feel free to stop by and watch the migration with these folks! We start around 7am and to see the largest numbers of birds, plan to arrive no later than 7:30am.

MN Public Radio story

Bob Kelleher from MPR did a story on the migration and the possibility of wind turbines on the N. Shore. The day we chose was foggy and rainy. Needless to say, there were only a handful of birds but Bob did a nice job piecing together a story anyway. Here's the link:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/09/29/north-shore-wind-power-birds/

"1000s of dead birds in Lake Superior"

I just found out that beginning on Sept 2nd, fishermen on Lake Superior were reporting "wind rows" of 1000s of dead birds floating in the Lake. The birds were described as being from warbler-size to woodpeckers to gulls. We had a storm come through the evening of Sept 1st that continued through the 2nd with high north winds and heavy rain.

I don't know the magnitude of this event nor do I know why the birds didn't make it. I can speculate exhaustion, inability to find or get to shore, or possibly a downdraft. I'm attempting contact with the fishermen to see if I can get any other information and piece together what may have happened and the possible magnitude of this mortality event. An interesting note is that the morning of Sept 1st, we recorded over 6000 birds flying inland from Lake Superior from a one-mile radius observation area. Assuming ~6000 birds were flying inland at every one-mile radius spot along the North Shore, I would guess that millions of birds were actively migrating during this time and quite possibly during the storm.

Lets hope the magnitude of this mortality event is not newsworthy. I'll post what I find out.