Portland school turns off wind turbine to halt seabird slaughter (From Dorset Echo)
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Portland school turns off wind turbine to halt seabird slaughter
10:00am Saturday 3rd July 2010 in
A £20,000 wind turbine brought in to make a Portland primary school more environmentally friendly has been turned off because it was killing seabirds.
Headteacher Stuart McLeod, of Southwell Community Primary School, said they ‘tried everything’ to solve the problem but had no choice but to shut it down.
In the past few months the nine metre high generator has taken the lives of 14 birds – far higher than the manufacturer’s estimate of one per year.
The wind turbine was installed at the school around 18 months ago, thanks to grant funding, to provide six kilowatts of power an hour.
Mr McLeod said: “We’ve got the ideal location for wind power but unfortunately seagulls kept flying into it.
“We were told by the manufacturer to expect maybe one fatality a year but it killed 14 in six months so we took advice and made the decision to turn it off.
“If it had happened at night time you could understand that the birds couldn’t see the blades, which rotate at 135mph but it was happening at all different times of the day.”
Mr McLeod came into school early to clear up the fatalities but when the deaths happened at playtimes and lunchtimes, the children got upset and he worried about the impact on the birds.
He said: “The school governors investigated putting scaffolding up but that would impact on its performance, we thought about painting the blades a dazzle yellow but the manufacturer said that couldn’t be done.
“We’ve even gone as far as Stansted Airport to investigate bird-scaring plastic owls and we spoke to herring gull eyesight experts at the Natural History Museum.
“We’ve tried so hard to be eco-friendly but now we can’t turn it on.
“We can’t get rid of it either because we bought the turbine we had to apply for grants and the grant from the Department of Energy and Climate Change states that it has to stay on site for five years.”
The school is now negotiating with Dorset County Council about the future of the wind turbine.
Comments(49)
nigefromdorchester
says...
11:02am Sat 3 Jul 10
I love puns....don't you ?
JANEAUSTEN
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11:10am Sat 3 Jul 10
Mabu
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11:30am Sat 3 Jul 10
nigefromdorchester
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12:02pm Sat 3 Jul 10
Mike Hannon
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12:11pm Sat 3 Jul 10
thatslife
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12:41pm Sat 3 Jul 10
PortlandYoof
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1:28pm Sat 3 Jul 10
Rats with wings... they eyeball me whilst I'm cleaning/polishing the car I swear!
bkiddus
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1:46pm Sat 3 Jul 10
veeebs
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2:20pm Sat 3 Jul 10
echorubbish
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2:42pm Sat 3 Jul 10
bretthehe
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3:21pm Sat 3 Jul 10
free wessex
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3:49pm Sat 3 Jul 10
Galliano
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5:51pm Sat 3 Jul 10
acop40
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6:37pm Sat 3 Jul 10
free wessex wrote:Yes if you can throw them high enough.
Does it work on chavs?
Dorset Boy
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6:37pm Sat 3 Jul 10
thebaglady
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7:00pm Sat 3 Jul 10
Galliano wrote:Live and let live! The seaside wouldn't be the same without seagulls. If you don't like living by the seaside, go live in Yeovil!
So that works then does it? I shall have to give that a try! Fed up of been woken up at 4.30am and swooped at whilst trying to cut the grass.
echorubbish
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7:24pm Sat 3 Jul 10
thebaglady wrote:I think most people are happy with sea gulls but the gulls we are talking about are not seagulls they are flying rats, and if you go to any of the local land fill tips you will see a white carpet of them and they are a lot bigger than the proper sea gulls that we know and love, and probably have no idea of what a proper sea gull lives on and does all day. They need to be culled in large numbers as they are a danger especially to small children if they happen to be eating; they are noisy filthy creatures that wait until you have washed the car or hung the washing out before *hitting all over it.
Galliano wrote: So that works then does it? I shall have to give that a try! Fed up of been woken up at 4.30am and swooped at whilst trying to cut the grass.Live and let live! The seaside wouldn't be the same without seagulls. If you don't like living by the seaside, go live in Yeovil!
Security words vote - acid
Genghis
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8:33pm Sat 3 Jul 10
echorubbish wrote:There you have it. The Gulls aren't the problem. We are. They will breed and increase so long as there is a handy food store and we humans provide it in the form of our rubbish tips and black bags. It's been noticeable around this way that since the much maligned wheelie bins were introduced that there aren't so many nesting Gulls on the roofs. Areas around tips and where black bags are still in use, well, just ring the dinner bell and feed all them young Gulls.
thebaglady wrote:I think most people are happy with sea gulls but the gulls we are talking about are not seagulls they are flying rats, and if you go to any of the local land fill tips you will see a white carpet of them and they are a lot bigger than the proper sea gulls that we know and love, and probably have no idea of what a proper sea gull lives on and does all day. They need to be culled in large numbers as they are a danger especially to small children if they happen to be eating; they are noisy filthy creatures that wait until you have washed the car or hung the washing out before *hitting all over it.
Galliano wrote: So that works then does it? I shall have to give that a try! Fed up of been woken up at 4.30am and swooped at whilst trying to cut the grass.Live and let live! The seaside wouldn't be the same without seagulls. If you don't like living by the seaside, go live in Yeovil!
Security words vote - acid
Rodwellocal
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8:40pm Sat 3 Jul 10
They, ummmm, 'decided to leave'.
Perhaps I should just go eco friendly and get a turbine. Great bit of kit.
acop40
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10:40pm Sat 3 Jul 10
Rodwellocal wrote:The seagulls are a part of living on the coast it is their habitat, its the way life is. We can not make them any more agreeable but maybe some of the locals need sorting out.
I had seagulls nesting on my roof, by the chimney stack, a few weeks ago. They, ummmm, 'decided to leave'. Perhaps I should just go eco friendly and get a turbine. Great bit of kit.
Genghis
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7:42am Sun 4 Jul 10
Rodwellocal wrote:Good for you that they, ummmm, 'decided to leave'. I expect they, ummmm, 'decided to leave' as you had the, ummmm, proper Licence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. If not it may have been a bit unwise to, ummmm, mention it on a public forum.
I had seagulls nesting on my roof, by the chimney stack, a few weeks ago.
They, ummmm, 'decided to leave'.
Perhaps I should just go eco friendly and get a turbine. Great bit of kit.
echorubbish
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8:59am Sun 4 Jul 10
acop40 wrote:Seeing as you seem to like them so much if you would care to post your address we can direct them to your place.
Rodwellocal wrote: I had seagulls nesting on my roof, by the chimney stack, a few weeks ago. They, ummmm, 'decided to leave'. Perhaps I should just go eco friendly and get a turbine. Great bit of kit.The seagulls are a part of living on the coast it is their habitat, its the way life is. We can not make them any more agreeable but maybe some of the locals need sorting out.
echorubbish
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9:21am Sun 4 Jul 10
Genghis
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9:43am Sun 4 Jul 10
echorubbish wrote:I don't mind them. They're part and parcel of the coastal areas that we live in. I accept that and get on with my life. Remove the Gulls and other scavengers, many just as bad or even worse, would move in on the bounteous offerings we put out for them. As I said to you before if it weren't for us humans leaving mountains of waste for them to thrive on they wouldn't be such a nuisance. Your solutions to all problems seem to revolve around knee jerk reactions and this instance the problem is Gulls, solution is kill them. If you want to be serious about controlling their numbers then it's about time we took a bit of responsibility and started to cut down on the amount of waste we create and disposing of the waste we do create in better ways than landfill sites. The flaw in that is that it would cost time, inconvenience and money. All things that are guaranteed to wind up the moaners yet again.
acop40 wrote:Seeing as you seem to like them so much if you would care to post your address we can direct them to your place.
Rodwellocal wrote: I had seagulls nesting on my roof, by the chimney stack, a few weeks ago. They, ummmm, 'decided to leave'. Perhaps I should just go eco friendly and get a turbine. Great bit of kit.The seagulls are a part of living on the coast it is their habitat, its the way life is. We can not make them any more agreeable but maybe some of the locals need sorting out.
JANEAUSTEN
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11:22am Sun 4 Jul 10
Duckorange
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1:44pm Sun 4 Jul 10
JANEAUSTEN wrote:What? On Portland? It's probably the highlight of their lives so far.
Maybe some of the posters above would like to console the children who have been finding these mutilated corpses.
Mick from the rock
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4:11pm Sun 4 Jul 10
More birds are killed every year flying into windows.! maybe they should remove them too an let the birds fly through your house.
Dorset Boy
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5:44pm Sun 4 Jul 10
Mick from the rock wrote:You forgot to mention the amount of birds killed on the roads, unfortunatually very few flying rats get hit.
What a stupid place to put a wind turbine. More birds are killed every year flying into windows.! maybe they should remove them too an let the birds fly through your house.
Old Bill
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8:20pm Sun 4 Jul 10
CharlieBarley
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8:32pm Sun 4 Jul 10
X Old Bill
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8:40pm Sun 4 Jul 10
.
The main thing one needs to remember is that sh1tehawks and wood pigeons are inherently stupid - Give them something to fly into and they will find it. Their feathers (and heads) make quite a pretty pattern on my french doors, which are fortunately toughened glass.
.
And, to clear up one point in the article - They do not fly at night if they can possibly avoid it. I have seen herring gulls attempting to fly under street lights, as soon as they clear the top of the posts into the dark they panic and come back to the ground.
George Bubb D
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9:52pm Sun 4 Jul 10
dpeilow
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11:14am Mon 5 Jul 10
Tremendous Eddie Tremendouson
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12:38pm Mon 5 Jul 10
dpeilow wrote:Not an engineer are you? :-)
Surely the answer is to put a metal cage around the blades, just like a desk fan?
thebaglady
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12:47pm Mon 5 Jul 10
dpeilow wrote:Or, the turbine could be dressed up as a giant scarecrow??
Surely the answer is to put a metal cage around the blades, just like a desk fan?
Mr Dudbrey
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1:32pm Mon 5 Jul 10
In fact, cover the blades in chips and half empty yoghurt pots, then turn it on..That should act as bait to lure a few more in..
These desease ridden flying rats have no natural predators and need to be irradicated.
If off to search ebay..I got to get me one of those turbines...
Stunned
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1:44pm Mon 5 Jul 10
Mr Dudbrey
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1:51pm Mon 5 Jul 10
Whilst searching for a 'gull slicing turbine' on ebay, I'll see if I can find a catapult.. Should be able to lauch said toilet-troubled felines into the blades quite nicley..
Baxters
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2:35pm Mon 5 Jul 10
thebaglady
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6:31pm Mon 5 Jul 10
Baxters wrote:God **** clematis, I seem to spend half my life chopping it back ....
If it wasn't for these so called flying rats we'd all be up to our necks in the rubbish that we casually discard, and we would have run out of landfill ages ago. Also what is it with these do baders that just because a bird looks at you funny, wakes you up at 4 am or nests on your chimney it should be 'exterminated'? You people need to get a life, living in idyllic surroundings is obviously too good for you. ITS A SEA GULL. YOU LIVE BY THE SEA. GET USED TO IT. You'll be having a go at the flowers next!
thebaglady
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8:39pm Mon 5 Jul 10
Stunned
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12:39pm Tue 6 Jul 10
Baxters wrote:Well Baxters and baglady, do you read any other parts of the Echo? Idyllic, i think not, plesant maybe. These pests pull rubbish from the bins and leave it all over the floor, they forget to clear the wrappers. Flowers all well and good, but in your idyllic flower beds, what happens to the unwanted weeds/over grown clematis? Yep trimmed back or killed off. These seaguls need 'chopping' back!
If it wasn't for these so called flying rats we'd all be up to our necks in the rubbish that we casually discard, and we would have run out of landfill ages ago. Also what is it with these do baders that just because a bird looks at you funny, wakes you up at 4 am or nests on your chimney it should be 'exterminated'? You people need to get a life, living in idyllic surroundings is obviously too good for you. ITS A SEA GULL. YOU LIVE BY THE SEA. GET USED TO IT. You'll be having a go at the flowers next!
Mr Dudbrey
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12:40pm Tue 6 Jul 10
.
These flyings vermin don't nest on the cliffs, the nest on my roof.
I had to use some of my own precious spare time to borrow a ladder, climb up onto the roof and 'un-cork' the maggot ridden body of a scrawny, dead young common gul that had become wedged in my gutter downpipe..
Had this 'wonderful' bird been nesting where evolution has designed it to, then this wouldn't have happened.
so many guls...so few recipes...
Scolopax
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6:17pm Tue 6 Jul 10
PoetPeter
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3:20pm Wed 7 Jul 10
No one except an idiot can believe we should take any significant account of the death of birds like this.
Anyone who supports this ludicrous waste of public money and concern should take a long hard look at the history of mankind and ask how we could have got where we are today if we had to take account of such petty, trivial problems. The death of a few sea birds should be of no concern to anyone.
Scolopax
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5:54pm Wed 7 Jul 10
PoetPeter
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6:14pm Wed 7 Jul 10
Scolopax wrote:Poor little kiddies! Now they can grow up shielded from reality. They can be the sort of kids that don't know that thing in a plastic packet from the supermarket comes from killing an animal. They can grow up mollycoddled in ignorance - and be the lesser for it.
I think a lot of you have missed the point. The turbine was turned off because children had to view the spectacle of birds being hit by the blades, not nice whatever the species. Seems a perfectly reasonable decision to me just very unfortunate for the School since they were trying to raise awareness of environmental issues.
It's nonsense. In fact I think it's a form of child abuse to hide the truth from children like this.
Turn the turbine back on. Teach the children some real lessons about life, death, the environment, difficult choices and REALITY!
martaaay
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3:57pm Fri 9 Jul 10
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11:01am Sat 3 Jul 10