Apparently wind turbines have killed 73 Bald Eagles, according to a news story I saw. That should get some attention.

No sympathy from this quarter.

Bald Eagles are responsible (more responsible than lead ingestion) for the declining loon population on my lake in Maine. I have seen eagles snatch loon chicks from between their parents.

Let me clarify my last post. It should get attention from the people who are excited about green energy and think it has no impact on the environment at all.

Some large wind farms have people whose job is to count, document and collect? the songbirds killed by the blades, the number of which is huge. Unfortunately I can't remember what I've read but they kill many many thousands per year in places. What a surprise that this is not a well known fact, eh? I have a study in my files done by an Ak fish & game biologist friend that shows what the ingested pellets do to ducks. He went around the flats collecting livers and gizzards from hunters for a few years and cut the open to see the damage. It's pretty surprising how many pellets they ingest and most impressive what it does to their livers - they are a mess - black and pretty nasty looking. I never much believed in the non-tox shot issue until I saw his study. The area he did the research in is mud flats across from Anchorage with shallow water where the shot is relatively easy for them to find and ingest. In deeper water I don't see it as much of an issue. There's no questioning that ducks ingesting lead shot is an issue - it is, period. It kills them if they ingest enough.

Dean. The 'vintage' lady I hunted ducks with recently dislikes loons because she has seen them snatch up baby ducks from the lake she lives on! That was as new one on me but does not come as a surprise. I've had them come up and try to snatch grayling off my line as I reeled them in.

Everything has its price, both in our world and in the world of the wild as well.

A conservationist friend of ours was taking a group of nature lovers on a tour to view Red Cockaded Woodpeckers which are endangered as many of you know. They found one sitting on a pine limb and were enjoying it when a hawk swooped in and took the woodpecker off for lunch.

You won't see much about this wind turbine issue on the national news I'm guessing. It's a no touch situation in the current liberal atmosphere because it's "green".

DLH

No doubt lead pellets are bad when injested. , but I suspect that probably about the same mortality exists for non tox shot crippling., Net result is fewer ducks. We would be better off by taxing the use of waterfowl lead shot which would be priced like non-tox (at least steel) and using the "tax" to buy/lease/improve breeding grounds for waterfowl (can you say Ducks Unlimited?) Loss of habitat is much more important than a few lead pellets

John, that would very likely be a workable solution if politicians didn't always seem to have their hand in the till either to line their own pockets or the pockets of their favorite 'special interests'.