[Imaginos]

It's a toughie definitely but I would question the emotive use of figures. The following is from the article quoted with population estimates from "population Trends in British Breeding Birds by Marchant, Hudson, Carter & Whittington 1990 obviously this is a little out of date but I'm sure any wildly inaccurate numbers will be corrected for me:

50 golden eagles lost due to collision with turbines British Population: circa 1000
50 merlin lost due to collision 550-650 pairs
75 to 150 red throated divers lost due to collision 1200-1500 pairs in Sotland
Minimum of 314 pairs of dunlin lost of the Great British population due to habitat loss and displacement (we believe this figure is more likely to be 640 pairs) 9,900 pairs
Minimum of 350 pairs of golden plover lost due to habitat loss and displacement (we believe 700 pairs in a worst case scenario) 30,000 pairs

So how catastrophic? the population hits for dunlin & golden plover are insignificant (1-2% of golden plover, 3-6% of dunlin) in themselves although they do reflect some habitat loss. The other figures are (I suspect deliberately) unclear as to whether these are annual or total figures. If total then again, although regrettable these numbers are not huge, if annual-which seems unlikely given the number of eagles- then, yes, the word catastrophe is rightly used.

Also from the report:

"Other likely consequences of the development include a high collision risk for migrating corncrakes (one of the UK's rarest birds), as well as whooper swans, Greenland barnacle geese, white fronted geese and white tailed eagles. Many of these species and their habitats are specially protected under European Directives"

This is a cause for concern, although may be unfounded, I could just as easily claim they cause a risk to Red Kites, as they undoubtably do in Spain, this is more a list of rare species that could occur in the area than something which has been proven.

As John says the south of Spain is covered in wind turbines, and this gives an ideal opportunity to see whther these sorts of fears are grounded or not. John, do you happen to know if any local ornithologists are studying the effects?