Distances Between Breeding Sites and White-Tailed Sea Eagles Found Dead Near Wind Turbines in Schleswig-Holstein

Abstract

In this chapter, distance from breeding site, spatial distribution of birds found dead and location of foraging waters of white-tailed sea eagles is put into context with existing wind turbines in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. A general spatial separation of breeding sites of the white-tailed sea eagle and currently installed wind turbines is obvious. Within a distance of 3 km around the 67 nest sites of the year 2011, no wind turbines can be found in 51 cases (76%) and within a distance of 6 km around the nest site, no wind turbine can be found in 22 cases (33%). On the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein with the relatively low number of breeding pairs, only three birds were found dead. In the districts Plön (PLÖ) and Ostholstein (OH) the results are clearly different. The highest number of collisions was found in the northern and southern part of Ostholstein (with a high density of wind turbines). This also coincides with the highest densities of white-tailed sea eagle breeding pairs. In the Plön district (with less wind turbines) only one collision victim became known, what can be regarded as a success of the local site planning of wind turbines. There is no indication of an influence of wind turbines on the direction of flight paths. The birds appropriately use the randomly distributed foraging waters within a distance of 12 km around the breeding site. Apparently, wind farms do not cause large scale evasive movements like flying round or over wind turbines. A reduction of the collision risk can therefore only be achieved by excluding the construction of new wind turbines in the vicinity of known nest sites.