SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
Levels and correlates of bird and bat mortality at Small Wind Turbine sites
Jeroen Minderman 1*, Elisa Fuentes-Montemayor 1, James W. Pearce-Higgins 2, Chris J. Pendlebury 1, Kirsty J. Park 1
APPENDIX 1: Turbine owner questionnaire
Micro-turbines and wildlife questionnaire
The aim of this research is to identify situations where problems associated with micro-turbines may arise, and to quantify any risks to wildlife involved. This information will be used for guidance on siting micro-turbines to minimise any risk to wildlife whilst maximising energy efficiency.
The details from this form will be held electronically with security measures to prevent unauthorised access to information. This information will be treated in the strictest confidence in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998, and we will not disclose it to any third party.
If you do not know any of the answers to the questions below please write unknown.
Section 1: About you
Whilst we are unable to accept anonymous questionnaires, if you do not want us to contact you for any further information there is an option box for “further contact” at the end of this questionnaire.
1. Your name & address ……………………………………………………………………………..
2. Telephone number (optional) ……………………………………………………………………………..
3. Email address (if available) ………………………………………………………………….…………
Section 2: About your turbine
4. Is your turbine (please tick one of the following):
a. roof mounted b. free-standing c. mounted on a boat
If the answer above is “a” or “b” please give an indication of its location e.g. postcode or OS/Landranger grid ref………………………………………………………………
If the answer above is “c” please give brief details of its usual location
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
5. What make is your turbine? ……………………………………………………………………
6. What model is your turbine? ……………………………………………………………………
7. What is the maximum power output …………………………………………… kW
of your turbine? (in kilowatts)
8. Approximately what height is your turbine ……………………………… metres OR
(measured from ground level to hub height)?
You can give your answer in metres or feet ……………………………… feet
9. What is the diameter of the rotor blades? ……………………………… metres OR
You can give your answer in metres
or feet. ……………………………... feet
10. Does the turbine operate all the time or do you ever stop it from operating at certain times e.g. daytime, evenings? Please give brief details
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
11. Approximately how many months/years has your turbine been operating? …………………………..
Section 3: About wildlife in your area
Please circle the appropriate Yes / No response for the following questions
12. Do you ever see bats or birds flying
close to the turbine (within 20m)? Bats: Yes / No Birds: Yes / No
13. If Yes to 12, how do they seem to react to it? Do they seem to deliberately avoid it, ignore it or do they approach it? Please give brief details.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
14. Do you ever see bats or birds flying in
your garden or nearby (within 50m)? Bats: Yes / No Birds: Yes / No
15. Do you know of any nearby bat
roosts or nesting birds? Bats: Yes / No Birds: Yes / No
16. Have you ever noticed any injured
or dead bats or birds near the turbine? Bats: Yes / No Birds: Yes / No
17. Would you be prepared to check
near the turbine regularly to let us know Yes / No
if you find any injured or dead bats
or birds?
Section 4: Further contact
18. May we contact you for further details if we need to? Yes / No
19. We are currently looking for study sites for this research
- would you be prepared to let researchers visit your turbine Yes / No
to make observations?
If Yes to 18 OR 19, please ensure you have provided either a telephone number and/or an email address in section 1.
20. If you have any other comments you would like to make please let us know.
Thank you. Completed forms should be sent to: Wind turbine survey, School of Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK4 4LA
For further details on this work and for contact information please go to:
http://www.sbes.stir.ac.uk/research/ecology/micro-turbines.html
Measure / Description / Mean / Median / 1st Q / 3rd QProportional area of / Urban area:
Buildings, roads and other paved areas (e.g. parking lots) / 14.45 / 9.32 / 0.00 / 43.39
Cultivated (Non-paved) area:
e.g. farmland, amenity grassland, gardens. / 71.10 / 79.70 / 4.46 / 100.00
Semi-natural habitats:
e.g. rough grassland, heathland, scrub, scattered trees. Excludes woodland. / 11.98 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 85.04
Woodland: broadleaved, coniferous or mixed / 2.23 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 12.12
Water bodies / 0.25 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.56
Habitat diversity / Shannon Diversity Index of five habitat types above. Calculated using the number and relative abundance of habitat types above, on each scale. / 0.48 / 0.49 / 0.00 / 1.01
Density (m/m2) of / Linear features: e.g. hedgerows, fences, stonewalls.
Excludes water linear features, woodland edge and perimeters consisting of built-up and other non-linear features. / 0.04 / 0.03 / 0.00 / 0.09
Woodland edge / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.02
Linear water features: e.g. ditches.
Excludes perimeters of water bodies. / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.00 / 0.01
Distance (m) to nearest / Buildings / 40.40 / 14.98 / 0.00 / 158.99
Tree, treeline or hedgerow
(measured on Google Maps satellite images) / 36.95 / 13.25 / 3.48 / 124.25
APPENDIX 2: Supplementary Tables
Table A1. Type, units and description of habitat measurements taken from OS MasterMap maps and Google Maps satellite images, for a sample of N = 73 SWT sites. Area, habitat diversity and density measures were obtained within circular areas (radius 50m) centred on turbine positions.
PC1 / PC2 / PC3Standard deviation / 1.582 / 1.455 / 1.144
Proportion of variance explained / 0.313 / 0.264 / 0.163
Cum. Proportion of variance explained / 0.313 / 0.577 / 0.741
Proportion of urban area / 0.518 (+) / 0.077 / -0.089
Proportion of non-paved area / -0.257 (-) / 0.591 (+) / 0.009
Proportion of semi-natural habitat / -0.053 / -0.637 (-) / -0.153
Proportion of woodland / 0.018 / -0.143 / 0.800 (+)
Habitat diversity / 0.475 (+) / -0.165 / 0.366 (+)
Density of linear features / 0.465 (+) / 0.190 / -0.216
Distance to buildings / -0.468 (-) / -0.131 / 0.123
Distance to trees / -0.027 / -0.371 (-) / -0.366 (-)
Table A2. Standard deviation, proportions of variance explained and variable loadings of the first three orthogonal axes extracted by a Principal Component Analysis of 11 habitat variables at 70 small wind turbine sites. Values in bold (marked +) are positive loadings > 0.25, and values in italics (marked -) are negative loadings <-0.25. For definitions of measurements see Table A1.
Table A3. List and details of studies used to establish an average searcher efficiency. Values in bold are those used to calculate the average searcher efficiency; these relate to experiments using small birds or bats only. Note that this represents a random sample of studies that quantified searcher efficiency in a systematic way in a range of study sites in different continents; it is not intended as an exhaustive review of carcass searcher efficiency.
Source / Type / Habitat / Months (season) / Number placed / Fraction found / Lower CI / Upper CIYoung et al. (2012) / Small bird / Spring (5 April - 15 July) / 27 / 0.700 / 0.520 / 0.830
Large bird / 12 / 0.870 / 0.740 / 0.960
Bat / 38 / 0.720 / 0.590 / 0.380
Small bird / Autumn (16 July - 15 November) / 28 / 0.320 / 0.180 / 0.460
Large bird / 11 / 0.870 / 0.740 / 0.960
Bat / 34 / 0.380 / 0.240 / 0.530
Anon (2008) / Small bird / Grassland / Summer-Autumn (August-October) / 5 / 0.400
Large bird / 4 / 1.000
Small bird / Conservation Reserve Program Land / 10 / 0.100
Large bird / 11 / 0.818
Small bird / Grassland / Spring (Mar-May) / 2 / 0.500
Large bird / 2 / 0.500
Small bird / Conservation Reserve Program Land / 9 / 0.111
Large bird / 11 / 0.727
Paula et al. (2011) / Small bird / Low density scrub (high visibility) / September / 10 / 0.200
Medium density scrub / 10 / 0.070
High density scrub (low visibility) / 10 / 0.100
Kerns & Kerlinger (2004) / Small-medium bird / "Forest clearings" / September-October / 29 / 0.276
Arnett et al. (2005) / Bat / "High" visibility / Jul - Sep / 81 / 0.679
"Medium" visibility / 55 / 0.455
"Low" visibility / 31 / 0.290
"Extremely low" visibility / 40 / 0.075
"High" visibility / 52 / 0.481
"Medium" visibility / 68 / 0.176
"Low" visibility / 40 / 0.100
Brown & Hamilton (2006) / Bird / Cropland/pasture / Whole year / 47 / 0.723
Bat / 69 / 0.754
Anderson et al. (2004) / Small bird / Small shrub / August / 36 / 0.750 / 0.59 / 0.91
Grassland / 32 / 0.720 / 0.56 / 0.88
Large bird / Small shrub / 44 / 0.820 / 0.7 / 0.93
Grassland / 64 / 0.700 / 0.6 / 0.81
Small bird / Small shrub / April / 44 / 0.590 / 0.47 / 0.71
Grassland / 87 / 0.560 / 0.46 / 0.67
Large bird / Small shrub / 36 / 0.860 / 0.77 / 0.95
Grassland / 64 / 0.920 / 0.86 / 0.99
Anon (2006) / Medium-large bird / May / 9 / 0.440
Oct / 10 / 0.800
Jan / 15 / 0.930
Small bird / May / 11 / 0.360
Oct / 10 / 0.500
Jan / 15 / 0.470
Johnson et al. (2000) / Small bird / Crop / Mar-Nov / 89 / 0.213
Conservation Reserve Program Land / 74 / 0.176
Pasture / 44 / 0.295
Hay / 22 / 0.182
Plowed/bare ground / 58 / 0.586
Woodland / 8 / 0.375
Snow / 9 / 0.444
Crop / 96 / 0.396
Medium bird / Conservation Reserve Program Land / 63 / 0.302
Pasture / 47 / 0.404
Hay / 24 / 0.417
Plowed/bare ground / 25 / 0.480
Woodland / 9 / 0.333
Wetland / 2 / 0.500
Snow / 7 / 0.857
Crop / 86 / 0.465
Large bird / Conservation Reserve Program Land / 69 / 0.391
Pasture / 41 / 0.537
Hay / 23 / 0.391
Plowed/bare ground / 19 / 0.789
Woodland / 12 / 0.500
Wetland / 2 / 0.000
Snow / 8 / 1.000
Open / 20 / 0.800
Brinkmann (2006) / Bat / Overgrown / May
Autumn 2008 (Jul-Nov) / 20 / 0.700
Heavily overgrown / 20 / 0.300
Crop / 100 / 0.780
Grodsky & Drake (2004) / Small bird / Crop
Crop / Spring 2009 (Apr-May) / 100 / 0.710
Autumn 2009 (Jul-Nov) / 100 / 0.640
Spring 2010 (Apr-May) / 99 / 0.343
Autumn 2008 (Jul-Nov) / 97 / 0.454
Bat / Spring 2009 (Apr-May) / 100 / 0.330
Autumn 2009 (Jul-Nov) / 100 / 0.470
Spring 2010 (Apr-May) / 99 / 0.263
Spring (Mar-May) / 4 / 0.750
Johnson et al. (2003) / Small bird / Crop / Summer (May-Aug) / 16 / 0.813
Autumn (Aug-Oct) / 4 / 0.750
Winter (Nov-Mar) / 12 / 0.667
Spring (Mar-May) / 4 / 1.000
Medium-large bird / Summer (May-Aug) / 16 / 1.000
Autumn (Aug-Oct) / 4 / 1.000
Winter (Nov-Mar) / 12 / 0.750
Jul - Sep, Feb, May / 55 / 0.418
Nicholson et al 2005 / Small-medium bird / Jul - Sep, Feb, May / 42 / 0.405
Bat / Variable / Jul-Sep / 100 / 0.820
Mean (excluding medium/large birds) / 0.445
Lower 95% CI / 0.309
Upper 95% CI / 0.581
References for Table A3
Anderson, R., Neumann, N., Tom, J., Erickson, W.P., Strickland, M.D., Bourassa, M., Bay, K.J. & Sernka, K.J. (2004) Avian Monitoring and Risk Assessment at the Tehachapi Pass Wind Resource Area: Period of Performance: October 2, 1996 - May 27, 1998. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, USA. Available at: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/36416.pdf [Accessed Jun 2014].
Anon. (2006) Diablo Winds Wildlife Monitoring Progress Report 2005-2006. Western EcoSystems Technology, Inc., Cheyenne, WY, USA. Available at: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentVersionID=41938 [Accessed Jun 2014].
Anon. (2008) Post-Construction Avian and Bat Fatality Monitoring and Grassland Bird Displacement Surveys at the Judith Gap Wind Energy Project, Wheatland County, Montana. TRC Environmental Corporation, Laramie, Wyoming, USA. Available at: http://docs.wind-watch.org/AvianBatFatalityMonitoring-JudithGapMT.pdf [Accessed Jun 2014].
Arnett, E., Erickson, W., Kerns, J. & Horn, J. (2005) Relationships Between Bats and Wind Turbines in Pennsylvania and West Virginia: An Assessment of Fatality Search Protocols, Patterns of Fatality, and Behavioral Interactions with Wind Turbines. Bat Conservation International, Austin, Texas, USA. Available at: www.batsandwind.org/pdf/ar2004.pdf [Accessed Jun 2014].
Brinkmann, R. (2000) Survey of Possible Operational Impacts on Bats by Wind Facilities in Southern Germany. Ecological Consultancy Dr. Robert Brinkmann, Gundelfingen Germany. Available at: http://www.proj6.turbo.pl/upload/file/367.pdf [Accessed Jun 2014].