Dr. Todd Katzner from the US Geological Survey, will present the Department of Biological Science seminar, with a talk entitled, "Ecological correlates of golden eagle flight behaviour inform risk from wind energy development".

 Golden eagles are an elusive and iconic predator of northeastern North America. In other parts of the world, golden eagles are killed by wind turbines. Recent development of wind energy along Appalachian migration routes has generated questions about eagle conservation. My team’s research is focused on understanding movements of golden eagles to inform understanding of potential risk they may face from turbines. I will begin this talk with a review the status of golden eagles in eastern North America and then summarize insights from our GPS-GSM-based telemetry research on >85 migrating eagles. Golden eagles migrate using a complex and seasonally-specific combination of thermal and orographic (deflected) updraft to subsidize their long-distance movements. Their tendency to switch from orographic to thermal updraft is dependent upon environmental and topographic conditions they encounter. These behaviors are stereotyped such that it is possible to predict the altitude at which eagles will be flying. Such predictions can then form the basis for models that predict risk to birds from operation of wind turbines. Our models illustrate that expected risk varies regionally and that most proposed and operational wind energy facilities have at least 1 turbine predicted to be high risk. That said, most of these turbines could be moved to a site predicted to be lower risk, with minimal loss of energy generation potential.