Quote:
Originally Posted by thunder 
You had better visit East Anglia, where the wind farms are sited in flat countryside! The truth is, we just do not know how big a threat windfarms are to UK bats, as few (if any) sites are monitored properly, if at all. This work needs to be done urgently.
henrya
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Henrya, I live in East Anglia. Not counting Scrooby Sands there are only something like 70-80 large turbines. They are mostly situated in fenland, with very few trees or hedgerows - not exactly idea bat habitat anyway. The turbine blades of most of these windfarms are above 30m from the ground too so MOST bats are unlikely to get anywhere near them.
Of course there are a fair few smaller turbines which could well be much worse. For example, the one at Cley built by the NWT! Perhaps they might have some data on how many bats have been killed?
I do agree that we do not know what the threat is, and it is prudent to consider the threat to bats when siting turbines, and also to carry out some more studies. And I agree about the risks of microturbines which get sited much lower down and nearer hedgerows and trees.
But despite the lack of studies, I am sure there are much bigger threats to bats than wind farms.