More Bird Slicers For Lincolnshire

Dean Eades · **Posted:** Sat Jun 11, 2011 1:16 pm

Give up on Wind Farms they are useless

The only thing wind farm production does is profit industrialists and engineers who make and design the steel parts.

Consider -
Wind farms produce very little electricity
Wind farms use up electricity from the grid to heat themselves when its cold
Wind farms cannot be operated in high winds
Wind farm electricity cannot be stored for later use
Wind farm subsidies make electricity more expensive for everyone else.
Wind farms are a blot on the landscape
Wind farms kill birds including rare Eagles

Why the £250bn wind power industry could be the greatest scam of our age - and here are the three 'lies' that prove it
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... m-age.html

Chris Grimshaw · **Posted:** Sat Jun 11, 2011 8:01 pm

The Mail is famous for its MIMBY views especially about when it comes to land holders
Doubt it would object to much if they were built in the middle of a council estate
Or am I getting cynical in my old age
What I do know is believe nothing printed in that newspaper

Phil Espin · **Posted:** Sun Jun 12, 2011 3:45 pm

Hi Dean

Not quite a balanced view. I've just come back from an offshore bird survey on a wind farm and I can confirm they profit birders and lots of ex fisherman as well as industrialists and engineers.

Wind farms produce loads of electricity, yesterday the one I was on was producing 83 MW from 13 turbines, enough to heat several electric kettles the engineers reckoned.

You seem to have overlooked the point that electricity produces far less CO2 than any other industrial form of electricity generation and is much less polluting of the environment. Wind farm electricity can be stored to exactly the same extent that any other electricity can.

Its true that green tariffs make electricity more expensive but so does the rising price of oil, gas and nuclear power plant safety.

Some people. me among them do not think wind turbines are a blot on the landscape, they are a relatively clean way to generate energy and I think there should be one/several in every community so electricity is produced locally rather than centrally.

The really big bird killers and blots on the landscape are the pylons and electric cables of the national grid, if we got rid of those and generated electric locally people could decide whether they wanted their own local clean electricity or perhaps they could decide to do without altogether? I guess some would prefer to have their electric generated somewhere else with all those nasty nuclear power plants tucked out of sight and out of mind. If people want them and they are so safe stick them in cities, which would you prefer next door?

Conservation groups have been successful in preventing wind farms where they present a real risk to birds e.g. on Lewis. Every man made object presents a bird hazard including factories, modern farming, tower blocks, bridges and big camera lenses. If you want to live in an industrial civilisation you have to accept there is an environmental cost to everything, some costs are less than others and in my opinion the evidence points to wind power being much less environmentally costly than coal, oil, gas and nuclear.

David Morison · **Posted:** Sun Jun 12, 2011 5:13 pm

Phil Espin wrote:

Every man made object presents a bird hazard including factories, modern farming, tower blocks, bridges and big camera lenses.

Interesting observation, I don't think Dean has had a bird collide with his big camera lens and neither have I (not as big as Dean's!). I suspect that Phil means the human beings attached to the other end are a hazard, but then if they are they aren't real birders anyway. So in the end it's actually man that is the real hazard, so what can we do about that?

It's interesting the comments that appear on this forum on a rainy day!

David

Dean Eades · **Posted:** Sun Jun 12, 2011 5:17 pm

I hate them, they are not enviornmently friendly & leave a huge carbon footprint just to put them up , have a lifespan of 20 years & slaughter birdlife, the EMF & noise drives every living thing around them crazy.

Wind farms are just a joke and not a very funny one. The last assessment showed that on-shore wind farms produced less than 30% of the electricity that was forecast when they were installed and as you say for much of the year they actually use more electricity than they produce. Now the manufacturers say all will be well once we have off-shore windfarms. But we believed their propoganda last time!! Only real answer we have is nuclear but that just doesn't give people a warm glow! :-

Wind farms will never be the answer, they can't do the job required. Unless science comes up with a pretty quick solutio, nuclear power is the 'least worse' option. If we don't build a new generation of nuclear power stations, we will be buying our electricity from someone who has...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... n-industry

Phil Espin · **Posted:** Sun Jun 12, 2011 5:33 pm

Hi David

My point was that the manufacturing of most industrially made objects, including extracting the resources from which they are made, constructing the places that they are made and their transportation to the end user all have environmentally damaging consequences for birds as well as other inhabitants of the planet. We live in a complex world and we can either cope with it and try and limit the damage to some degree or we could curl up and die if we got too obsessed with it.

I seem to remember there is a poetic line about " each man kills the thing he loves" , one of Oscar's I believe, its certainly true of birders, we rampage across the planet to see new birds, not giving a tinkers cuss for the damage that inevitably follows in our wake. I am no different in this respect but I think we all need to recognise reality.

I would also like to hear from Dean or any other birder who has seen a bird sliced by a wind turbine or hammered by a really big lense. I myself have not seen either event, despite looking.

Dean Eades · **Posted:** Sun Jun 12, 2011 5:51 pm

Wind turbines taking toll on birds of prey

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... usat_x.htm

Freddy Johnson · **Posted:** Sun Jun 12, 2011 6:43 pm

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Oscar Wilde.

And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword.

PS.

Some new deeds kill the birds we love,
By all let this be said,
Those birders with rampaging feet,
Those slicers as through bread,
We wring our hands and simply sigh,
By all let this be read.

Thanks Oscar. :roll:

Freddy

Richard Gunn · **Posted:** Sun Jun 19, 2011 9:03 pm

Queensbury's rules, rules!

Richard.........

Alan Ball · **Posted:** Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:11 pm

I think wind turbines in Lincs must slice up large numbers of golden plovers flying at night over land, or seabirds and migrants over the sea at night.

If you've "not seen a bird sliced up by a wind turbine" I suggest you look at:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na6HxKQQsAM

but - a warning - it's not very nice viewing.

Alan

Anthony Bentley · **Posted:** Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:38 pm

Whilst at Covenham resevoir yesterday ALL of the wind turbines were out of use.

Geoff Williams · **Posted:** Sat Dec 29, 2012 7:11 pm

RSPB Scotland have reported 2 Hen Harriers have been killed by wind turbines at the Griffin Wind Farm near Aberfeldy which comprises 68 turbines and became fully operational in July 2012. A spokesman for the RSPB said climate change still poses one of the biggest threats to birds and wind farms remain part of a wider range of measures to mitigate this impact.
Geoff

Stephen Routledge · **Posted:** Sun Dec 30, 2012 8:26 pm

From reading this...the only people who are pro wind farm are the ones making money out of them!.

Steve.

James Smith · **Posted:** Mon Dec 31, 2012 11:15 am

Or it could be that those who have an opinion counter to the anti-wind farm lobby feel it wiser to keep their heads down and not comment.

James

Phil Espin · **Posted:** Mon Dec 31, 2012 11:55 am

As a person who makes money out of bird surveying on windfarm sites just thought I would respond to the comments above.

Alan Ball is correct to say that wind turbines can harm birds. That is why it is doubly important that bird survey work is done in advance to identify areas were turbines could cause the most damage to birds so that turbines are placed elsewhere. I am aware of several Lincs land sites, particularly involving golden plover where initial surveys have persuaded developers not to even try and seek planning permission because the bird strike risk is too high.

Anthony is correct to point out that wind turbines do not turn when it is windy, which is why they are part of an overall approach to our electricity needs not the be all and end all, but no one is claiming that they are.

Steve is wrong to suggest that the only people supporting wind power are the ones making money out of it. Opinion polls consistently show that 67% plus of the UK population support wind power.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... s-icm-poll

The alternatives to renewables like gas fracking will pollute the whole environment.

Wind farms are going to be built, birders can have an impact on that by ensuring that accurate data is provided on local impacts so they do not get built where they will cause most damage to birds. As I've said in other posts, human lifestyles cause damage to birds whatever we do, its a consequence of industrial civilisation that we all benefit from, even as I tap these keys. Whether 67% of birders or a different figure feel the same way as the general public I don't know, perhaps we need a poll?

The Lincolnshire Bird Club

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