Posted on 06/27/2013 10:54:13 PM PDT by prisoner6
Dozens of birdwatchers who travelled to a Scottish island to see an extremely rare swift have been left distraught after it was killed by a wind turbine.
Around 40 people were watching the White-throated Needletail, the world's fastest flying bird, on the Isles of Harris when the tragedy happened.
Sightings of the bird have only been recorded eight times in the UK in nearly 170 years, most recently in 1991, prompting around 80 ornithologists to visit the island in the hope of catching a glimpse.
David Campbell, from Surrey, told BBC Scotland the incident took place late on Wednesday afternoon. Speaking as he made his way home, he said: “We just watched the whole thing with dismay."
Josh Jones, of Bird Guides, a specialist website for ornithologists, said he had spoken to witnesses, who had seen the bird fly straight into one the turbine’s blades. He said: “It is ironic that after waiting so long for this bird to turn up in the UK it was killed by a wind turbine and not a natural predator.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I know George Clooney rubs a lot of FReepers the wrong way, but he and Jeff Bridges are great in it. Really quirky and funny. Highly recommended!
WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP!
It could be the wind around the blade distorts its position, but I would think its more likely the bat's radar is more front facing and hot designed to detect an object moving at very high speed from the side and he doesn't detect it in time.
That is what I am trying to get at, with that high blade velocity, is that "snapshot" giving the bat a false positive of a meal? Thus thrusting the bat into the path of another blade.
Their radar/sonar system is based on sound reflectivity, so it does seem somewhat plausible.
IMO, Wind Turbines, or as I like to call them “Migratory Bird Blenders”, are monuments to liberal stupidity. Worse is burning 40% of our corn crop for fuel when people are starving, but there isn’t such an effective monument for that stupidity.
Yeah, I think we are both trying to say he doesn’t “see” it in time and gets whacked.
You were mostly right on the bats killed by wind turbines. Some are struck by the blades and some are killed by the low pressure in the vortexes at blade tips as explained here: http://www.fort.usgs.gov/Products/Publications/22447/22447.pdf
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.