Chirp Thrills

Farmland birds don’t seem to mind wind turbines, says study 2

The sights and sounds of wind turbines don't seem to bother farmland birds, according to research published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Scientists studied the effects of two wind farms in eastern England on 3,000 birds of 23 species, and found that only pheasants seemed to be disgruntled enough to move farther away from the turbines. (Incidentally, if we had a band, we'd call ourselves The Disgruntled Pheasants.) "This is the first evidence suggesting that the present and future location of large numbers of wind turbines on European farmland is unlikely to have detrimental effects on farmland birds," says coauthor Mark Whittingham. "This should be welcome news for nature conservationists, wind energy companies, and policymakers." However, the study did not focus on whether birds were killed by flying into turbines, which is a main concern of conservationists.

Advertisement
Advertisement
  1. loraz Posted 4:33 am
    01 Oct 2008

    Disgruntled PheasantsI love "The Disgruntled Pheasants."  Thanks for the laugh.  
  2. caniscandida Posted 8:57 am
    01 Oct 2008

    clever birdsUsually any superstructure added to an ecosystem where terrestrial birds reside is bad for those birds, because the superstructure allows perches for raptors.  In this case, it seems that the wind turbines would be highly unsuitable to serve as perches.  So of course the pheasants are quite at peace.
    Or if you will, "gruntled"(?).  I thought that "disgruntled" was one of those adjectives for which a corresponding prefixless mate, meaning the opposite, did not exist.  And in principle I was right.  BUT, the Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary has:
    <<

    grun-tle ... vt grun-tled; grun-tling ... [back formation fr. disgruntle] (1926): to put in a good humor (were gruntled with a good meal and good conversation -- W. P. Webb)

    >>

Add a Comment

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have an account, log in. If you don't have an account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

Hello, Visitor!    Why not register?

Advertisement