Wind farms considering detection systems to prevent bird deaths
Just before daybreak, a group of naturalists don parkas to blunt the frosty wind blowing down a narrow canyon in the Tehachapi Mountains north of Los Angeles. They mount spotting scopes and cameras on tripods, and wait.
"Showtime," one of them whispers at the first rays of light. The silence is broken by thousands of brightly colored birds the size of Christmas ornaments pouring north through the canyon on whooshing wings, just a few yards above ground.
Kern County bird expert Bob Barnes stands spellbound. Peering through binoculars, he says, "They're following the contours of the canyon like a living river of birds."
This is Butterbredt Spring, arguably the best place in California to witness the spring migration of birds. Why it attracts so many — tanagers, warblers, orioles, grosbeaks, vireos and flycatchers — is not entirely understood. But something about the topography and its fierce winds has a funneling effect on birds moving over the mountains along the Pacific flyway.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-condor-radar2-20120528,0,2831784.story