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.
