The associations between weather and topography on golden eagle flight behaviour at a wind farm in the Canadian rockies.

• Other Authors: Johnston, Naira N. (Author), Otter, Ken (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Northern British Columbia 2011
• Subjects: Golden eagle > Effect of wind power plants on > Peace River Region (B.C. and Alta.); Wind power plants > Environmental aspects > Peace River Region (B.C. and Alta.); Golden eagle > Migration > Peace River Region (B.C. and Alta.); Wind turbines > Environmental aspects > Peace River Region (B.C. and Alta.); QL696.F32 J64 2011; Alta; Canada; British Columbia; Peace River; golden eagle
• Online Access: https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc:16186/datastream/PDF/download; https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc%3A16186; https://doi.org/10.24124/2011/bpgub768

I documented flight tracks of migratory golden eagles in proximity to a pre-operational wind farm in northeast British Columbia, Canada. This is the first Canadian research along a golden eagle migration corridor that indentifies weather and topographic factors associated with flight altitudes in relation to a proposed ridge-top wind farm development. In both spring and fall migration seasons (2008-2010) I documented golden eagle flight behavior in two parts: (1), to determine what temporal, spatial and/or weather variables were associated with eagle flights near the proposed ridge-top turbine string (called the risk-zone) and (2), to determine if weather, topography and/or flight behaviour were associated with eagle altitudes as they entered the risk-zone. I found entries into the risk-zone were positively correlated with hourly passage rates across all years and between seasons. For eagles that entered the risk-zone, flight altitudes increased with increasing wind speed, were lower under head-winds compared to cross- and tail-winds, and were lower over sloped compared to flat ridge-top topography. Post-construction observations are needed to quantify avoidance behaviours in addition to wind data collected near turbine height. I highlight the need for a Cumulative Impact Assessment for the region to oversee the potential accumulation of small impacts on golden eagles at the population level. --P. ii. The original print copy of this thesis may be available here: http://wizard.unbc.ca/record=b1737876