Millions of birds die from window strikes each year. A German company called Arnold Glas seeks to overcome that problem by designing Ornilux glass, which contains a special UV coating that is visible to birds, but doesn’t obstruct the view for humans.

While we see a solid, clear pane, birds see a Jack Frost-like web of dark areas that seem to suggest “all is not clear blue skies ahead.” It is said to reduce window strikes by as much as 75%.

Read more about this technology at the TreeHugger site:

www.treehugger.com/files/2010/08/bird-friendly-glass-designed-help-spiders-ornilux.php

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The next era of birding will be ushered in by a new crop of great birders. Who will they be?

I wrote this post a few months ago but chewed on it a while after sharing it with a few friends, birders, and members of the ABA board. After reading so many good opinions on the future of birding lately, most recently Kenn Kaufman’s piece on Inclusiveness, the time is ripe to share my thoughts.

Click HERE for the Spanish Version.

In a January blogpost, I proposed the following:

“Birders and nature enthusiasts: I propose we collaborate on an important mission: spread the accessibility of nature. Make it knowable to someone who hasn’t yet discovered it. Vow to take as many of your uninitiated friends as possible into the out-of-doors this year. Show them what you see and hear, help mend that disconnect…”

This weekend I took a group of beginning birders out to watch birds. They were friends of mine, people with a curiosity of birds but who hadn’t ever received the benefit of a one-on-one introduction to their color and song.

I thoroughly enjoyed that weekend field trip. Besides collectively basking in the brilliance of a Blue-winged Warbler, I was able to give back in a way that so many friends and guides have done for me. And I didn’t have to wear, or pretend to wear, the mantle of “Expert.” I was just K-Lo from the Block, showing her peeps some birds.

Beginning  Birders Have it Tough

I’m sympathetic to beginners, they were me not so long ago – and they still ARE me every time I venture into new habitat. But much of what I know today, I owe to the instruction of patient bird guides over the years. I never take for granted the gracious help offered by someone more knowledgeable than me.

Yet beginning birders—those of us with a thirst for knowledge but a world of birding yet to learn—have it tough. First, we don’t know the possibilities yet–there’s an overwhelming amount of information about birds to absorb and apply but it takes a long time to be confident in what we know.

Second, it takes a long time to earn a sense of our own limitations. Ironically, it often happens that once we DO feel a sense of confidence in something, our assumptions are premature or overreaching, and we make a bad call. The sting of our goof impairs future progress.

Third, beginners just entering the birding scene are told there’s a certain way to do things, from describing field marks, to reporting trip lists, to conducting oneself appropriately on listserves. If we do it wrong, or do it in the wrong place, the error is revealed by awkward silence or direct reproach. While there’s a need for precision and accuracy when it comes to the scientific record, there’s a time and place for it. Rigid protocols in more casual settings (e.g., listserves or birding outings) can have a chilling effect on outsiders who aren’t in the know.

Costs of Birding Exclusivity

Beginners soon sense what really goes on in birding circles: the catty judgment about who knows what more than who. Some segments of birding operate like an exclusive country club where the cost of entry is not piles of cash, but loads of birding cachet. But whom does that leave behind — and what is the cost?

Regrettably, we’ve all seen the enthusiasm of novice birders stamped out by the corrective whoop-di-doo of birding hotshots. We’ve seen dialogue on listserves squelched by those who assert that feeder sightings, backyard raptor kills, and birding trivia has “no place on this list.” We’ve seen legions of birders too afraid to ask questions for fear of being wrong, stupid, clearly “not a REAL birder.”

Yet even if someone can’t identify every warbler in the forest or sandpiper on the shore, they still contribute mightily to the world of birding. The growing field of citizen science—where everyday birders collect bird data and submit it to scientists—is one example. The legions of volunteers who run small nature centers and birding clubs is another. Anyone with the curiosity, passion, and cooperation to get involved should be welcomed, their talents harvested.

Changing of the Guard/Increased Visibility

Around every corner, we hear chatter of declining memberships in birding organizations. The old guard is making way for the new, but the new is nowhere to be found. Birding is as relevant today as it ever was—indeed more so due to the rapid pace of habitat destruction that threatens populations plus all the tools, gadgets, and electronic accoutrements that help us dive deeper into its fascinating minutiae.

This burgeoning public interest is reflected in the media. Newspapers are supporting bird-watching columns in a number of states, best-selling books such as The Big Year by Mark Obmascik and Life List by Olivia Gentile chronicle the birding lives of our most rabid members. As I write, Hollywood crews in Vancouver, BC are filming scenes from a screenplay based on The Big Year, with the birding behavior of our own friends (e.g., Greg Miller, an Ohio birder and character in the book) being “studied” by actors Jack Black and Owen Wilson.

But now that Hollywood and Harcourt are hot on our trail, what are we going to do? Capitalize on the increased visibility, of course!

Become an Ambassador for the Birds

By nurturing the spark of new birders, we create a win-win: either we have new birders coming up the ranks of birding clubs and conservation organizations, or at the very least, we help promote an understanding and appreciation of the natural world–one that will inform a person’s decisions the rest of their life.

To reach this goal, I would like to see each of us make a pact to be an ambassador for the birds—I submit that you do not need an official pulpit or loads of birding cachet to be a great ambassador. Just realize the power that you have to spread the joy of birding, to demonstrate curiosity in the field, and the kindness to bring others into the fold.

Together, we can create a Birder’s Welcome Wagon of epic proportions and refine the hospitality of the sport. A number of small but important efforts will help:

• We commit to teaching nonbirders about birds. Again, teaching is not only for the “experts,’ any birder can do it. Just take friends into the field and show them what you see and hear. Birds’ beauty speaks for itself, so you’re sure to impress. To reach new birders, link up with your local birding club’s “new birder” trips or organize your own—just do it.
• We talk to kids about birds. Offer to go into your local school(s), lead a field trip, teach a grandchild, or simply read a short bird book. The awareness you create will have a ripple effect.
• We offer to write an article for a local paper or website. If you have a gift for words, offer to write a short piece on seasonal migration, local birding hotspots, or anything to engage beginners in the sport.
• We make an effort to show nonbirders the view through our scopes. If we’re excited by what we see, they might be too.
• Speaking of floppy hats: We stop dressing like geeks. A number of birders I know lament our choice of field dress as being so geeky as to be unapproachable. Others are on a mission to ban khaki across the sport! I personally love my khaki zip-off pants and multi-pocketed vest, but the idea is this: does anything about your dress make you seem unapproachable in the field? Especially to younger birders who we desperately need to attract?
• We stop being cliquish. Why do so many serious birders exclusively hang out and bird with other serious birders? Too much exclusivity can hasten one’s irrelevance. We bring others, especially younger birders, into the fold. We talk to others on the boardwalk. We lean over and say “Did you see that?” to someone outside of our circle once in a while.
• We go out of our way to make new birders feel welcome—in the field, on the phone, in the backyard, on the listserv. We let them know it’s okay to ask questions. Rather than remain quiet, we reach out after they’ve shared something exciting. Most of all, we demonstrate that we relate to their enthusiasm.
• We curtail the moral melodrama about how humans are wrecking the environment and harming birds. The truth is, many new birders don’t want us to harsh their new-birding mellow. They’ll pick the rest up if they are meant to.
• We freely admit our own mistakes and gracefully accept those of others. Beginning birders should understand that the truth of an ID is to be held higher than all other truths, even that of a fragile ego, and all birders need to demonstrate gracious self-correction. While I’ve seen many great examples of this in the field, we need to realize that beginners can still be stunted by the perception of quiet, unspoken judgment. So by sharing a story of our own fallibility, we make birding more human, more accessible, and start to change the world.

The Next Great Birders

The next era of birding will be ushered in by a new crop of great birders. Whereas we commonly measure a Great Birder by his or her skills in bird identification and insights into changing bird populations, our assessment should broaden to include “softer” skills such as enthusiasm, approachability, and level of cooperation. Many of us are fortunate to have brushed with such great birders – their imprints last a lifetime.

While scholars will always hold a special place in birding, a broadened definition of “great birder” will help ensure a new generation of recruits is around to carry the baton.

What do YOU think?  What on this list are you already doing, or would you LIKE to do more of, to reach new birders (and deepen your connection to birding)?

Acknowledgements
In appreciation of Jane Goodall’s “feathers on the eagle” analogy, I’d like to pay special recognition to all my friends and colleagues with whom I’ve discussed these ideas–you know who you are. And I want to say thanks to all the birders who already live by this creed. I’ve met many of you, and you’ve made a huge difference.  Finally, special thanks to the new birders in my life. What a great day of spring birding we had.

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If you’re feeling a bit removed, a bit numb, a bit out of the fray of the biggest oil spill/environmental disaster in U.S. history, these images may help you understand its scope of damage.

Boston.com: Oil Reaches Louisiana Shores

Be ready to be punched in the gut.  But don’t stop there. Do something. Call someone. Your President (202 456-1111), your Senator, your newspaper, BP oil execs, or donate to the environmental groups who are trying to salvage what little they can from this wreck.

The damage may be done here, but your voice can influence the future, as well as to what level BP is held accountable. Did you know that Exxon appealed itself all the way out of its oil damages?

The net cost of the cleanup and settlements to Exxon for that disaster totaled LESS THAN 20% of ONE year’s profits, thanks in part to insurance, but mostly to 5 appeals and a conservative Supreme Court.

Screen capture. Go to http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/oil_reaches_louisiana_shores.html for details.

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My post on Wind Farms and Avian Mortality continues to generate a good deal of interest. I’m impressed with the amount of skepticism and questioning it generated…This is good; questioning is the very reason I wrote the post. 

Bird watchers and bat lovers need to know more about how ‘tall man-made structures’ affect flying animals. So I contacted Bill Evans, a leading authority on avian tower kills, and asked him to put the issue in perspective and comment on the current proliferation of wind farms. 

A biological surveyor examines a recently killed juvenile Red-tailed Hawk at the Maple Ridge wind energy facility in northern NY. This is one of five Red-tailed deaths recorded at this wind project in 2007-2008.

Thanks for joining me, Bill. Can you put the issue of bird mortality from cell phone towers in perspective for us?

Generally, cell phone towers are not a major concern for bird impact if U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) tower guidelines are followed. Cell towers that are less than 200-ft high and unguyed are the safest and thousands of such towers have been built.

My concern is that in the Great Plains region many taller, guyed cell towers are being built (e.g., 400-ft agl) that have unsafe lighting for birds.

For example, if you look at Texas on Towerkill.com you will see that in the period 1998-2004, installation of towers ranging from 300-500 ft in height increased by more than 1,000. There are few studies on the impact to birds of such towers but the study cited below suggests it may be at least 50 annually:

Gehring, J. Kerlinger, P. and A.M. Manville II. 2009. Communication towers, lights, and birds: successful methods of reducing the frequency of avian collisions. Ecological Applications, 19(2):505-514.

What do you think is the next step to curtail these impacts – and who or what is involved in that?

There has been a decade-long effort by many people and organizations to get the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to change the lighting regulations on tall towers to one that is less disorienting and less hazardous for night migrating birds (i.e., just using flashing lights). A historical account of this effort is included on Towerkill.com.

Currently, a lawsuit orchestrated by the American Bird Conservancy and other conservation groups against the FCC is awaiting FCC response. The FCC is waiting for a “conspicuity” test by the FAA of the proposed safer lighting system on towers (i.e., just using flashing lights). In other words, the FAA has to make sure that a change in the aviation obstruction lighting on communications towers won’t impair the function of the warning lighting for pilots.

How do you feel about the current proliferation of wind farms to produce clean energy? 

I’d feel a lot better if the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) was enforced for every Federal dollar involved. Wind energy so far is operating at a NEPA net negative –for example, there are 13,000 commercial-scale wind turbines in the Midwestern US. Most, if not all, of the associated wind projects are benefiting from Federal subsidies but they haven’t had any substantive flying animal (bird & bat) fatality assessment yet multiple threatened and endangered species are involved.

I’m also not convinced that industrial wind farms are going to be an effective solution for significantly curbing CO2 emissions. I’m not against wind but I’m personally in the camp that modern nations need to come together in agreement on a temporary proliferation period of nuclear energy to make certain that we level off CO2 by 2050. If something else should arise (e.g. cheap solar) that can address the CO2 problem in the meantime, then that would mean we could reduce dependence on nuclear all the faster.

Of course we all have our agendas and I’m coming from the perspective of a kid who fell in love with neotropical migrant birds at age 13 and has been working passionately toward preserving the integrity of their vital migration patterns since my mid-20s (~25 years).  To me, nocturnal bird migration is the Sequoia of animal behavior and there is massive ignorance in most of ~6.8 billion people about this contemporaneous and awesome phenomenon around us.

Yes, we must address the earth’s CO2 levels in order to preserve our remnant pieces of natural history, [so clean energy is important; but] minimizing impact to night migrating birds from tall, man-made structures is equally important from the perspective of maintaining the integrity of ancient long-distance bird migration patterns. There is no valid reason why these two efforts shouldn’t go hand in hand.

Conservation and appreciation for wildlife is part of the American heritage. Money directed to understand wind energy’s wildlife impacts provides jobs. We are missing a chance to broaden the biodiversity of our economy and build ecological interconnections around the world.

How are the potential threats of wind farms to birds being managed – or not?

In some regions of the continent there have been good studies and a precautionary approach (e.g., New York), but unfortunately the whole Great Plains region is getting built up largely without environmental impact studies.

There are also projects being built in very inappropriate locations from a wildlife impact standpoint. The Canadian Wolfe Island wind project near Kingston was built, amidst protest, in an internationally designated Important Bird Area.

The huge wind project in Oaxaca, MX is a hideous siting from the bird impact perspective. It is located in the middle of a continental bottleneck for bird migration between North and South America. This region has perhaps the densest bird migration per kilometer on Earth!

Are you aware of the Peñascal Project south of Corpus Christi?

From the avian impact standpoint, I think the Peñascal project south of Corpus is the worst sited wind project in the US. The environmental studies I’ve seen for the project are grossly incomplete and lack transparency. I have seen no basis for public confidence that the project will not have major bird impact and the precedent of the Peñascal wind project should be of great concern to bird lovers.

I studied bird migration in south coastal Texas for 10 years. This region has the highest density of bird migration and greatest migratory species diversity of any region in North America, so the precautionary approach certainly was not applied with the Peñascal Project (blogger note: please see my post for more information on the pre-construction studies done for this project). 

While one wind project such as Peñascal will not likely have continentally significant flying animal impacts, its precedent sets the stage for the whole Texas coastal region to be built up with wind projects–which would significantly affect continental birdlife.

Any opinions on the MERLIN technology that’s being used at Peñascal to shut off blades when an oncoming flock is detected?

I think the MERLIN radar system is an outstanding technical achievement, and I know several of its developers, but from what I can see its utilization at the Peñascal wind project is getting more service as a public relations tool than mitigating bird fatalities. This methodology should have been scientifically validated and peer-reviewed before it received such wide press, and I fear it is misleading the public.

Bird migration happens on the south coast of Texas 24/7 at least 10 months a year. The volume of migration is too great to simply shut down the wind turbines every time birds might pass by.

I also don’t see how shutting down turbines for a few big migration days a year is going to make a difference in fatalities — shutting them down more than that starts to impact the profitability of the wind project.

I will follow the development of this mitigation approach but I am not optimistic for its utility. Given that we have not seen transparency and critical review in the preconstruction studies, why shouldn’t one think that this application of the MERLIN technology is a scam to deflect concern about the project’s bird impact?

It simply does not make sense economically or ecologically to build a wind project at a location with such high bird migration rates that the wind project would need to be shut down at times to mitigate bird kill.

(Blogger note: reactions to my post on this subject invited loads of skepticism re: the  reported safety of this wind farm to migrating birds. Pre-construction studies revealed surprisingly low threat, said the avian biologist in charge. But continued skepticism is fed by the lack of transparency in the data which are held proprietary by the energy company. Ornithologists clearly want the chance to verify these data.)

What can bird enthusiasts do right now to make a difference on the issues of wind farms or cell phone towers?

For communications towers, I think it is critical for everyone to support and follow the American Bird Conservancy’s lawsuit against the FCC regarding communications towers. Donations to ABC earmarked for the “towerkill” issue would send an important message of support to ABC. We also need to support USFWS to continue its leadership in addressing this problem.

Regarding wind power, we need NEPA enforced. That involves a groundswell of public support for our bird clubs and conservation organizations to pressure our government –  and demanding that our tax dollars used to promote “clean and renewable” wind energy be wed to the NEPA process.

We are headed toward a huge buildout of wind energy facilities – it would be a great asset to future generations for us to make the effort now to fully understand and minimize wind energy’s impact to migrant birds and other creatures.

Thank you, Bill. What links should we follow to stay abreast of this issue?

USFWS communications tower issue page

History of our effort to reduce kills at communications towers

American Bird Conservancy towerkill lawsuit

Wind energy in the US

General information on avian towerkill

Bill Evans is the President of OldBird.org, a nonprofit dedicated to facilitating acoustic monitoring of flight calls during nocturnal migration, and developer of TowerKill.com, which houses a wealth of information on the issue of avian fatalities at communications towers. 

SPREAD THE WORD ON THIS ISSUE. Please Tweet, Digg, Stumble, Facebook, etc. 

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Many of us hope that alternative energies will replace oil consumption before the world collapses in mayhem.

Wind power is highly promising, but of course it presents a significant danger to birds because wind farms are sited in major wind alleys, which more often than not correspond with primary migration routes.

One wind farm in southern Texas (Peñascal Wind Power Project, just south of Kingsville near Baffin Bay) claims it has the technology to protect migrating birds from wind turbines. The system is equipped with radar sensing equipment that can “detect” flocks of birds up to four miles away, pinpointing their altitude and density. When this happens, the turbines are shut off, thereby granting safe passage to the birds.

I first noticed a blurb on this in OnEarth online magazine. Many questions came to mind:

* Is the radar-detection system (hailed as that in use by NASA and the U.S. Air Force) efficient at detecting migrating flocks? What are its limitations?

* What ornithologists were consulted in the planning?

* By golly, will this really work?

So I did some digging and found an older PR document that says extensive wildlife surveys were done prior to construction of the farm. In fact, they say “for three years, third-party wildlife biologists spent more than 4,000 hours in the field studying the site and avian patterns during a wide variety of weather conditions.”

That’s a good start. What did they learn? This 2005 study, called the Peñascal Wind Farm Avian Risk Assessment, was compiled by that avian & wildlife team, which included: zoologist Glenn Perrigo of Texas A&M, Jim Sinclair, president of Texas Environmental Services & Analysis, physicist Robert Bensen, statistician Margaret Land, biologist David Chruhm, and Brush Freeman.

The study concluded that:

* Although the region is a significant wintering area for many ducks, geese, and shorebirds, and 80% of the world’s Redhead population winters in the Laguna Madre, virtually NO Redheads and few ducks and geese were observed in their “wind resource study area.”

* Although the Coastal Bend area is significant for Broad-winged Hawk migration in fall, significant impacts are unlikely. Hawks avoid large bodies of water. No Broad-winged Hawks were seen in the the study area in 2004.

* Although the region is significant for migrating Mississippi Kites, White Pelicans, and Franklin’s Gulls (among other many large, diurnal species), no significant effects are expected because these species tend to avoid migrating over the open prairie.

Well, all this sounded convenient and rosy. So I contacted Glenn Perrigo to see if he could elaborate.

Perrigo said his team has been studying the 250,000-acre site for more than four years. After spending hundreds and hundreds of hours on site, logging 10-15,000 miles groundtruthing the property, and making systematic point counts along transects during all hours of the day and night, Perrigo confidently says that there is “a surprisingly low risk for bird mortality” associated with this wind farm.

What? Isn’t the wind farm placed smack dab in the middle of a migration flight path? Well, yes. This region is in a flyway, but that characteristic is exaggerated for this parcel. First, many migrants are “trans-Gulf,” which means they cross over the open Gulf, perhaps between Galveston and the Yucatan. Those that are “circum-Gulf” migrate along the perimeter and may be of greater concern. But that’s where habitat comes into play.

Migrating birds almost always seek forested stopover sites and flyways rich in forested cover.  In this region of Texas, the most favored habitats are stands of Live Oak in the middle of prairie, called “mottes.” Birds, weary from migrating, have been known to “drop straight down” from the sky into these mottes. Protecting mottes and a reasonably sized buffer zone around them is therefore crucial.

However, the area under study is a highly disturbed short-grass prairie with little to no trees. The researchers saw very little migrant activity through the property, and thus, the conclusions of this study were made.*

When the wind farm company began construction of the wind farm in Spring of 2008, “they paid attention to our initial findings when deciding where to site the turbines. To their credit, they avoided areas of high avian risk,” says Perrigo. The turbines began spinning in April of this year.

The avian risk assessment team is contracted to do post-construction surveys to determine if their predictions of little to no avian risk are correct. The data should be available in another year or two.

UPDATE: On June 12, 2010 a flock of 15 American White Pelicans flew towards the wind turbines and the blades did NOT shut off. At least one pelican was killed before a birder’s eyes. You can read that account at birdingonthenet.net. Isolated incident? Or not? [Thanks to reader Noflickster for that bit of information].

As this story broadened, it became less about the bird-sensing radar technology and more about proper turbine siting within a flyway. At first blush, it doesn’t seem this wind farm will give us a proper test of the radar technology because no birds are expected to near its blades.

So as the data comes out, we need to be sure to attribute “little to no avian deaths,” (should that be the case) to its proper cause, which under fuller examination may be proper siting rather than the more intriguing flock-sensing radar technology.

Proper siting within a flyway.

According to this example, with data collected so far, it is possible to erect wind farms in migration flyways AS LONG AS you do extensive bird and wildlife surveys IN ADVANCE of the construction and FOLLOW THEIR RECOMMENDATIONS upon siting the turbines. That in itself is encouraging.

In April, 2009, the same company, Iberdrola, received approval for a 30-MW wind farm project in the Green Mountain National Forest of Vermont. Will they employ the same pre- and post-construction biological surveys? Will they site the turbines in low-risk areas? Will they employ this radar technology? Hopefully the people of Vermont will demand this be so.

Two things I know: we (most readers of this blog) care about birds and the environment. And as environmental advocates, we need to be open to change in the way energy is produced. Whether or not radar technology is a solution to the bird mortality issue is yet to be seen. But if a wind farm is being proposed in your corner of the world, demand that it be properly sited within the flyway, which requires extensive pre-construction studies.

Share your comments and opinions about this project in the comments.

Also, please see the interview with Bill Evans, avian tower kill authority.

_______________________________________________

* Perrigo was quick to point out that his conclusions extend only to the wind resource area that his team studied. What’s known as the Kenedy Ranch is actually two contiguous properties: one 250,000-acre belonging to the Kenedy family trust, and one 250,000-acre parcel (Kenedy Foundation Ranch) belonging to the Catholic Dioceses. A wind farm now exists on both properties but the projects were studied, sited, operated, and reported on separately. Perrigo surmises that conclusions for the other property will likely be different.  Based on this document, I can see why. The Kenedy Foundation Ranch features varied habitats including over 40,000 acres of oak woodlands. Obviously, the plot thickens and the story ain’t over.

For more information:

Wikipedia Entry

PR Fact Sheet prepared by the company, Iberdrola

Short article on the Renewable Energy Development Web site.

The Peñascal Wind Farm Avian Risk Assessment summary (2005)

A cynical view on tax implications of the wind farm offered by the President and CEO of the über-famous million-acre birding hotspot, Jack Hunt of King Ranch (back in 2006).

Hatfields vs. McCoys got nothin’ over King Ranch vs. Kenedy Ranch

Kenedy Foundation Ranch

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