Seil Chat

I see a planning application (Ref: 11/00780/PP) for wind turbines at Dunmore has been submitted. What is the view from PACT members on this? Do their arguments still hold? Will they object? Or will they ignore it as it is not in their own back yards?

Good question Minimum but why not ask it on the PACT website/forum?
http://www.clachanwindfarm.co.uk/
It may be pointless asking a question of PACT on this forum because one doesn't know if anyone from PACT reads Seilchat.

Regarding the application. Its only for two turbines, each about one third of the size of the Clachan turbines. Think Barnacarry. To me seems sensible for a farm to be able to go off-grid for a few days each year.
Little visual intrusion given their size and no danger to raptors now that they've been eradicated from round here. Should be no risk to pheasants as they are so inbred here that they are incapable of getting more than a couple of feet off the ground.

Don Shanks (Quixotic by choice)

longshanks wrote: no danger to raptors now that they've been eradicated from round here.

If you look around you will find that there are still plenty of raptors on Seil, perhaps not as numerous as in the past but certainly not eradicated.

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If anything we have noticed an increase in raptors up our end of the island in the last eight years since we moved to Seil.

There may well be raptors about but I personally have reported injured ones to the SSPCA..someone is definately trying to get rid of them! Lets hope they can get to the bottom of this?...

Well, well, well. It seems that all those who objected to the Raera, Clachan or Easdale wind turbine applications don't feel the same about those proposed for Dunmore. There has been very little comment. I wonder what the difference is.

I've had a look at the plans on-line on A&BC, and I can't honestly tell exactly where the turbines are intended to be sited. You know ... picturing yourself driving up the hill? What would you see?? Where would they be??? Any offers????

In principle I've nothing against discreetly sited domestic wind turbines, but looking at the available data these clearly aren't "domestic" size.

Not enough information has been supplied IMHO.

Foxglove wrote:There may well be raptors about but I personally have reported injured ones to the SSPCA..someone is definately trying to get rid of them! Lets hope they can get to the bottom of this?...

Foxglove, you may be interested in this excellent blog:
http://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpr ... incidents/
It reports all known incidents throughout Scotland.
Upsetting reading but it has opened a few people's eyes.

Long Blog (Twitt...er by choice)

NickB wrote:.
If anything we have noticed an increase in raptors up our end of the island in the last eight years since we moved to Seil.

Which raptors exactly have increased since you joined us? I would guess only buzzards and they seem to disappear for weeks at a time before a new pair move in.
Down our end of the island we used to see:
Hen Harriers
Kestrel
and Peregrine Falcons
they have all disappeared over the last several years. The last kestrel I saw was on a fencepost near the surgery in 2010.

Red Shanks (Milvus milvus by choice)

Thankyou Longshanks. It is indeed upsetting. I was told by the SSPCA not to tell anybody about the birds I found [it wasn't recently] as they were 'investigating'. One bird had torn a lot of flesh away escaping from a baited pole trap, it was still alive but had to be destroyed. All I will say is that this is a local problem

longshanks wrote:

NickB wrote:.
If anything we have noticed an increase in raptors up our end of the island in the last eight years since we moved to Seil.

Which raptors exactly have increased since you joined us? I would guess only buzzards and they seem to disappear for weeks at a time before a new pair move in.

Not just buzzards. We've seen a few smaller hawks recently, several times just sitting on fenceposts on the road up to Winterton - I think kestrels, but not sure. Def. not buzzards anyway. And we once had what Kathy says was a sparrowhawk on the bird table.

What an interesting development!
This inital post was about the possible siting of wind turbines at Dunmor, and asking for reactions.
Since then it seems to have been taken over by a bunch of twitchers who cannot agree on the raptor population of the island.
Apart from the fact that they are quite impressive in size and are worth checking off on the "Trainspotter List", what u-seful purpose do they serve in the general balance of nature?
Here I am talking as a fairly unknowledgeable member of the human race, as far as the diet of raptors is concerned.
If their presence is essential to prervent a population explosion of another species which could not be dealt with by other predators, or a threat to human society as we know it - then their possible decimation in numbers by encountering a turbine blade in their search for an evening meal (or even breakfast), I suppose has some bearing on the issue.
This seems unlikely, but I stand to be corrected.

Minimum wrote:Well, well, well. It seems that all those who objected to the Raera, Clachan or Easdale wind turbine applications don't feel the same about those proposed for Dunmore. There has been very little comment. I wonder what the difference is.

These are 27m high (to blade tip), not 78m - that's the main difference, as Longshanks has already pointed out. Only one third the size, and only two. These are 20kw machines, a very different proposition to the Clachan turbines.

And Easdale?

I would have thought that most of the arguments still apply.