Data from: Flight behaviour of Red Kites within their breeding area in relation to local weather variables: conclusions with regard to wind turbine collision mitigation
Data from: Flight behaviour of Red Kites within their breeding area in relation to local weather variables: conclusions with regard to wind turbine collision mitigation
Citation
Aschwanden J, Stark H, Liechti F. 2024. Data from: Flight behaviour of Red Kites within their breeding area in relation to local weather variables: conclusions with regard to wind turbine collision mitigation. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.338Abstract
1. Birds and bats are prone to collisions with wind turbines. To reduce the number of bat collisions, weather variables are commonly used to shut down wind turbines when a certain constellation of weather variables occurs. Such a general approach might also be interesting to mitigate raptor collisions. Studies on the relationship between flight behaviour and weather variables are needed.
2. To investigate the flight behaviour of raptors within their breeding area in relation to local weather variables, we used high resolution data of flight tracks of Red Kites collected on a wind energy test site (Germany). Birds were tracked with a Laser Range Finder (LRF) or with GPS transmitters. Weather variables were continuously registered on site. We used generalized linear mixed models to analyse the influence of weather variables and of the measurement method on different flight parameters. Furthermore, we investigated the probability of flying within a virtual rotor height range defined by three hub heights (84 m, 94 m, 140 m, diameter: 112 m).
3. The median flight altitude measured by LRF (52.5 m, 95% CI: 44.9–61.0, N=2,511) was on average 25 m higher than the corrected one resulting from GPS (27.8 m, 95% CI: 24.7–31.2, N=6,792). Flight speed also differed between methods (GPS: 29.2 km/h, 95% CI: 28.2–30.3 km/h; LRF: 25.1 km/h, 95% CI: 24.0–26.3 km/h). The effects of the weather variables were weak. Birds tended to fly less and lower during wet (humid, rainy, or foggy) than dry weather, and lower during strong than weak winds. Probabilities of flying within a height range of virtual rotors increased with decreasing hub height, and hence ground clearance.
4. Synthesis and applications: Flight behaviour was highly variable. Flights occurred during all weather conditions at different altitudes throughout the day over the entire season. Further research into the relationship between flight behaviour, weather variables, collisions, and other factors is needed as a basis for developing shutdown regimes generally suitable for raptors. The mean flight altitude and speed differed between the measurement methods. Any values resulting from studies should be interpreted in the context of the method.
Keywords
Milvus milvus, animal tracking, barometer, biotelemetry, GSM telemetry, GPS, light-level logger, magnetometer, Red Kite, wind energy
DOIs of related Publications
BibTex
@misc{001/1_338,
title = {Data from: Flight behaviour of Red Kites within their breeding area in relation to local weather variables: conclusions with regard to wind turbine collision mitigation},
author = {Aschwanden, J and Stark, H and Liechti, F},
year = {2024},
URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.338},
doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.338},
publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}RIS
TY - DATA ID - doi:10.5441/001/1.338 T1 - Data from: Flight behaviour of Red Kites within their breeding area in relation to local weather variables: conclusions with regard to wind turbine collision mitigation AU - Aschwanden, Janine AU - Stark, Herbert AU - Liechti, Felix Y1 - 2024/08/05 KW - Milvus milvus KW - animal movement KW - animal tracking KW - barometer KW - biotelemetry KW - GSM telemetry KW - GPS KW - light-level logger KW - magnetometer KW - Red Kite KW - wind energy KW - Milvus milvus PB - Movebank data repository UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.338 DO - doi:10.5441/001/1.338 ER -