May spent five years on a project called BirdWind, studying why birds collide with wind turbines and what happened when they did. Then, he turned his attention to the next step: how to stop birds from hitting the turbines in the first place.
He spent five years not realizing the turbines hit the birds. Not the other way around. Birds don't fly into opaque objects.
I don't think they were claiming the birds were flying into the blades, I interpreted that it was the motion blur making it so they can't see to avoid it. Turbine blades are very deceptive in that they appear to be turning slowly, when in fact the ends are moving incredibly fast. Couple that with a tall tower to entice a raptor to nest and you end up with a bird blender. Another issue to consider is that the EPA and State of California will stop a farmer for a kangaroo rat or a logging company for a single spotted owl, but wind does not get the same scrutiny. Here is an article from 13 years ago about yet I can find not a single wind turbine permit denial based on an environmental impact study.
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