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ECOFACT winter bird surveys continue
As reported previously, our staff are currently undertaking a large number of winter bird surveys in the Irish Midlands. In the gallery below we have provided some recent photos from of these bird surveys from this week. The photographs include Annex I listed Greenland White-fronted Geese Anser albifrons flavirostris, Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus, Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria, and also some Lapwing Vanellus vanellus and Greylag geese Anser anser.
All of the photos in the gallery below were taken during bird surveys being undertaken to inform both the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Natura Impact Statement (NIS) reports being prepared for proposed wind energy developments. None of the photos here were taken on actual wind energy development sites. Despite numerous hours of morning, evening and daytime observations we generally see very little at these sites during our bird surveys; particularly the one we are surveying this year which are very bleak. This is a great result for developers, but makes for boring field bird survey work!
Click on any of the photographs below to activate the gallery.
There are of course odd unusual random event which could happen at almost any site in Ireland; but generally we have seen nothing of significance during our bird surveys at any of our current of sites. Most of the site we are looking at this year are quite boring in terms of ecology; however our clients are delighted with these results so far and this type of groundwork is essential to close off uncertainty issues.
Many of our bird surveys are aimed at finding what the birds are doing regionally if they are not crossing our site? Many of the photos we put into our galleries therefore come from these types of bird surveys survey; often targeting areas well away from the proposed development sites. The photos we provide here from our bird surveys do not mean that the birds will be affected by any proposed wind energy development.
We find sites for developers which are of little or no importance to birds, or any other ecological receptors. We recommend to developers to exclude sites which are of importance to birds. We would never support an application which we thought would have a significant impact on birds (or any other ecological receptors).
Most of the photos we take, and which we include in photos here are taken during recognisance of regional sites (for examples up to 5km or more away). We believe that it is not enough just to say that birds are not flying over a particular site. If they are not flying over the site then it is important to explain what are they doing.
ECOFACT is Ireland’s largest independent ecological consultancy, and we have unparalleled experience in providing breeding and winter bird surveys along with assessing the ecological impacts of wind farm developments.
For a successful outcome in your wind farm planning application, chose Ireland’s leading ecology team.
If you require any bird survey work, or any advice regarding birds or ecology, please do not hesitate to contact us.
