Buffalo Moutain Windfarm

I previously mentioned that I would be helping on a bat mortality study at the Buffalo Mountain Windfarm. Although the study is not yet finished, I have uploaded some photographs I have taken.

The turbines are huge (260 ft tall, the blades are 135 ft long) and there are 18 of them along the mountain. The mountain is >3300 ft in elevation with occasional views of the surrounding mountains (although most have been coal mined).

The dead bats we are looking for are pretty small (bodies 1-2 in in length). Here is a dead, I think, Little Brown (it may be Eastern Pipistrelle).

Finally, this mountain, and the surround region, has taken multiple hits. In the past it has been coal mined and there are old coal benches everywhere. Now, part of the mountain is the WIndrock ATV area, that is also extremely damaging the mountain. The first two are a eroded gully on the mountain top, the third an old bench, and the last two are current ATV trails (there are much worse ATV trails, these images turned out the best.... we where driving when they were taken).

Bat and Wind turbines

For several nights the next 2 weeks I am taking part in a study by TVA about Bat Mortality associated with a windfarm north of Oak Ridge. This isn't the first study that has been done at this location, but it sounds quite interesting. The previous studies found that many more bats than birds were being killed, and the vast majority of these bat deaths occurred in late August and early September (during bat migration). Some of the things this is going to try to answer are (1) what is the time of these deaths (throughout the night, only at sunset/rise), (2) are the bats feeding when they hit or are they just flying (a portable radar is going to measure bat movements), and (3) do different turbines have different kill numbers (there are two different types of turbines there). For example, if the most of the kills were found to be at sunset/rise, then the turbines could just be stop for a couple hours a night for a few weeks and stop the vast majority of bat deaths.

My first night is tonight, so hopefully I will be able to post some cool pictures and more information in the future. Below is the picture I took in February from Frozen Head. Notice the small white things on the ridge line in the background.