Abstract
Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) constructed a wind energy facility approximately 5-9 miles southwest of Ainsworth, Brown County, Nebraska (Figure 1 ). The Ainsworth Wind Energy Facility has 36 wind turbines with a capacity of 59.4 megawatts (http://www.nppd.com/) on about 8,300 acres of privately owned land. The turbine blades are 131 feet long and sit atop a 230 foot turbine (http://www.nppd.com/). Turbines with FAA lighting include turbines 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, and 36. The single meteorological (met) tower at the site is also FAA lighted. The goals of this project were: 1) To document bird and bat fatalities at the developed wind farm by species. 2) To estimate annual bird and bat fatalities attributable to the wind farm. 3) To evaluate spatial patterns of fatalities.