Problems with the USFWS Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines

Problems with the USFWS Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines

Yesterday, we discussed the change in HMANA’s support for the new Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines (LBWEG).  One of the problems with the LBWEG for siting wind turbines is that compliance with them, including detailed consultation with the USFWS, is voluntary. The eagle take-permitting process can be seen as a strategy to address this deficiency, an enticement to developers to work with the USFWS in siting and developing energy projects. 

The USFWS grants incidental take permits based on a developer’s commitment to incorporate specific features and standards in their projects and perhaps engage in certain activities that mitigate any harm to eagles as a result of any specific project. In theory, the developer is protected from prosecution for any incidental killing, injuring or interfering with Bald or Golden Eagles caused by the project.  In exchange for this benefit, the USFWS is able to influence the siting, development and implementation of projects.  

Currently, incidental take permits must be renewed every five years, but the service is proposing to extend the life of a take permit to 30 years.  While  this extension may further encourage developers to engage with the USFWS through the permitting process, HMANA feels this extension:  

• neutralizes the effectiveness of post-construction mortality monitoring 
• protects the developer from submitting to public review of a project’s actual harm to eagles
• protects the developer from a review of the project’s compliance with the conditions of the take permit.  

As a result of these concerns, HMANA opposes any extension of the time period for take permits that removes the opportunity and necessity for periodic public review.  Further, HMANA finds the current five-year life span of take permits to be appropriate.

Next:  American Bird Conservancy’s actions on take permits

HMANA's New Wind Turbine Siting Policy

HMANA's New Wind Turbine Siting Policy

At its monthly board meeting June 17, 2013, the HMANA Board of Directors approved an update to its 2008 policy on industrial wind turbine siting and monitoring. It can be seen in its entirety on the HMANA website:  www.hmana.bbrr.org/wind-turbine-siting-policy  The update reflects changes between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2003 interim guidelines and its current Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines (LBWEG). This update also reflects HMANA’s concerns about the USFWS commitment to extending the life of incidental eagle-take permits from five to 30 years.  

HMANA strongly supported the USFWS 2003 interim guidelines, especially the stipulations that developers of industrial wind energy projects avoid known bird migration pathways and daily movement flyways, avoid features of the landscape known to attract raptors (such as ridge lines and coastlines), avoid areas formally designated as Important Bird Areas and avoid documented locations of any species protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. The current LBWEG constitute a significant departure from the 2003 guidelines, scrapping these important stipulations and failing to establish permanent and binding regulations or guidelines that provide clear, unambiguous federal guidance to the state and local entities that must make decisions about the proper siting of proposed projects.  The 2013 LBWEG are available for review at www.fws.gov/windenergy/docs/weg_final.pdf.

Next:  We’ll discuss why the new USFWS guidelines are problematic

HawkCount Now and Forever

It’s September! Horray! If you're a hawk watcher, this means it's time to head out to your favorite site and enjoy migration. You may also find yourself spending time on www.HawkCount.org. HMANA’s HawkCount database sees its heaviest traffic during the fall season as hawk watchers check out what’s being seen across the map. Aside from the up to date hourly and daily summaries, they are checking site profiles for things like species stats, trend graphs and site histories.

HawkCount.org is a free service.  Nevertheless HawkCount does cost money to run, so if you are not currently a watch site page sponsor, please consider joining the elite ranks of those who have already sponsored one or more sites.  And, to those who contributed previously, we invite you to renew your sponsorship and remain as an essential partner in maintaining and improving HawkCount.

September is Fund-raising Month on HawkCount.org, which means that we want all visitors and friends of HawkCount to be aware of the need for funding and how they can help.   To find out how you can support this valuable hawk watch resource go to http://hawkcount.org and click on one of the links in the box at the top of any page.

You can help support HawkCount “Now and Forever” either with a donation of any amount or by sponsoring the pages of a hawk watch site.  Sponsorships are available at several levels from Accipter at $75-$199 to Eagle at $1,000 and up.  Your name or the name of a sponsoring organization will be displayed on every page of the hawk watch site you choose.

New This Year!  In addition to the regular site sponsorships, we’re now offering sponsorships of non-site pages.  See HawkCount.org for details.

Thank you for helping us keep this valuable information system up and running!

Fall hawkwatching season already heating up!

The first hawkwatches are already counting and reporting data to HawkCount.  Even though few have been open for longer than a week, some interesting results are already showing up.

At two Pennsylvania sites, Hawk Mountain and Waggoner’s Gap, each has posted a record early date for the first merlin sighting.  The first merlin was seen at Waggoner’s on August 5 and at Hawk Mountain on August 15.  Waggoner’s also posted a record early Peregrine Falcon sighting on August 4.  Not to be outdone, Corpus Christi in Texas posted its first Peregrine sighting on its first official count day on August 10.  The site’s first merlin sighting came the next day on August 11.

August 17 was Corpus’ first four-digit day of the fledgling raptor season. They tallied 2802 Mississippi Kites.  August 16 wasn’t bad for the kites either, with 550 counted.

The new season has barely started and already it’s giving us something to talk about!

Calling all dragonfly enthusiasts!

HMANA has some exciting news about a fun new research opportunity and we’d like to invite you to take part. Starting this year, HMANA is partnering with the Migratory Dragonfly Partnership to assist in the better understanding of dragonfly migration. 

The Migratory Dragonfly Partnership (MDP) is a pioneering citizen science-based study of dragonfly migration in North America that was launched by US Forest Service International Programs and is chaired and coordinated by the Xerces Society, a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.  Regular monitoring and centralized reporting among participants across the US, Canada and Mexico will help to answer some of the many questions currently surrounding dragonfly migration and provide information needed to create cross-border conservation programs to protect and sustain the phenomenon.

Where do you come in? Well, what better way to monitor dragonflies than from a local hawkwatch!  Migrating dragonflies are often seen along routes used by migrating birds and hawk watchers are ideally situated to observe dragonfly migration. A lot of us are up there all day, every day throughout the migration season, so why not?

Whether you are a casual hawkwatcher on weekends or a full-time counter, you can participate in this important citizen-science project.  How much you’d like to be involved is up to you.  A hawkwatch may designate a special counter just for dragonflies or use current hawkwatchers to collect the data. Either can work! Counts are timed for as many minutes as you can cover, one, five, ten, for each hour or whenever you can. Estimates of migrant numbers are also accepted (e.g., 500 plus, less than 10, etc.) You may find you don’t have time for dragonfly watching at all which is fine, too.

Check out the downloadable data collection protocol and datasheet available at www.hmana.org. If you are associated with a particular hawkwatch, please contact me at brown@hmana.org so we can sign you up.  Please try to respond by August 15, 2013.  We will need to add some data fields to your online HawkCount data entry form.  If you would like to participate on your own, go right ahead. Data sheets should be sent to Xerces Society at the end of the migration season.

For information on the five dragonfly species MDP is tracking and how to identify them in flight go to http://www.migratorydragonflypartnership.org/uploads/_ROOT/File/MDP-field_guide.pdf.

Upcoming raptor-based tours from HMANA, Hawk Mountain and Hawk Watch International

November 5-11, 2013: Golden Days Hawkwatching and Fall Migration Tour  Join HMANA on a tour of select Northeastern hawk watches and Cape May, NJ to witness the spectacle of fall migration. This week-long tour will include the peak period of Golden Eagle and large buteo movement across the Northeast. We will visit locations that capture the rich history of the hawkwatching tradition, enjoy the area’s breathtaking fall colors, and focus on honing our hawk identification skills with our accomplished tour leaders. For more information, please visit: http://www.hmana.org/tours/Golden/

 

April 6-12, 2014: Raptor ID Workshop/Tour at Braddock Bay, NY

The focus of this tour will be sharing raptor ID tips from some of the best hawkwatchers in the country, utilizing both field and classroom components. We’ll also enjoy all the splendor of one of the Great Lakes’ best migrant hotspots at Braddock Bay Hawk Watch and visit raptor and owl banding stations. More info at: http://www.hmana.org/raptor_id_workshop/

 

October 7-12, 2014: Southern Florida: Hawk watching and birding in the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas

Join us for an exciting birding tour through southern Florida to experience waves of fall migrants and Florida specialties. We’ll spend time at the Florida Keys Hawkwatch during peak Peregrine Falcon migration. The site set a new world record (3,836 Peregrines counted this past fall!). More info at http://www.hmana.org/tours/Florida/

 

 

Experience the Veracruz River of Raptors - the world’s largest hawk migration! Join Hawk Mountain and Pronatura biologists in autumn 2013 for a nine-day tour timed for the peak of Broad-winged Hawk migration, September 27 - October 5. Enjoy hundreds of thousands of migrating raptors and waterbirds and view regional specialities such as aplomado falcon, bat falcon, red warbler, and double-striped thickknees. For more information on the tour:

http://www.hawkmountain.org/events/ecotour-veracruz-mexico-2012/page.aspx?id=2802

 

Join HawkWatch International in a wild west adventure on a mountain-top hawkwatch site! Frontline Science: Spend a weekend banding, counting, and observing the migrating raptors side-by-side with our field crew at either our Goshutes, NV or Manzanos, NM migration sites. Space is limited so visit www.hawkwatch.org for details and registration today.

http://www.hawkwatch.org/news-and-events/latest-news/360-frontline-science

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Tale of Two Condors Part II

 Antisano National Park, Ecuador.  February 2013.  Elevation 13,000 feet.  Early morning we join David and Jorge near Quito for the drive into the high Andes where we hope to glimpse an Andean Condor as well as numerous paramo specialties.  The landscape changes gradually as we climb, but within a half hour or so we notice a distinct difference in vegetation and the views are spectacular.  We stop at a small restaurant/hosteria where we traipse down a hillside pasture above a crater lake where Andean Teal, Yellow-billed Pintails, and Silver Grebes dabble and dive in the reflections of clouds and surrounding cliffs.  It’s chilly up here, so we don’t linger at the overlook but hurry back for a welcome steaming cup of chocolate.  The proprietors have scopes set up at the windows, and a log book sits on a nearby table where they record sightings of condors.  So maybe we might see one? we ask.  And no sooner are the words out of our mouths when someone exclaims, “Condor! There, above those cliffs!”  And then there are two, and three, and within seconds no fewer than twelve of the giant birds have risen on the updrafts above the escarpment.  

Andean Condor. From National Geographic:  Photograph by Anne Keiser

We can’t believe our good fortune, which was augmented an hour later up on the paramo when three adult Andean Condors soared over our heads low enough that we could see their fluffy white collars with unaided eyes!  And, if that wasn’t enough, later when we stopped back at the hosteria for lunch, we spied an adult male bird perched on a small outcropping on the cliff face across the lake.  While we watched through the scope, it moved to another spot.  “Un Nino! A kid!”  David had zoomed in so we watched in amazement as Papa Condor regurgitated large pieces of dead animal into the offspring’s craw.

California Condor Photograph by Chad Olson, NPS

A couple of weeks later we were in the southern part of Ecuador, where we met Chad Olson and Sophie Osborn from Wyoming.  We birded together for a few days, during which time we learned they are also raptorphiles.  They had both worked on the California Condor Recovery Project, and had wonderful stories about their experiences.  Sophie was awarded the Best Outdoor Writer prize in 2012 for her book  Condors in Canyon Country. She told of watching young California Condors playing with “toys” and of how each bird in the nursery had its own distinct personality. As the four of us discussed our individual experiences with the two species, and the awe we feel when watching, we all agreed that we like “our” condors best.