Abstract
From winter 2013/14 onwards, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust tracked Bewick’s Swan movements in relation to offshore and onshore wind farms along their migration route, with a particular focus on the birds’ flight-paths between Britain and mainland Europe, to inform the UK Government’s offshore energy Strategic Environmental Assessment including for offshore wind farm development in the North Sea region.
The main aims of the project were to describe Bewick’s Swan migration routes from and to Special Protection Areas (SPAs) in the UK, in relation to areas proposed for offshore wind farm development in the North Sea, and to determine the total number of wind farm sites (both offshore and onshore) encountered by individual birds during their migration through northwest Europe. Additionally, the total number of turbines that occurred along the swans’ flight-lines was estimated from the tracking data, to provide information for future collision risk and cumulative impact assessments for the species.