Nature Watch Windpower: Pros and cons

In our ever expanding need to find alternative energy we must continue to look into windpower as one possible source. And if we eventually say nay, it must be for good cause.

Two upcoming programs will help us understand the pros and cons of windpower in the Berkshires.

Windpower 101: On Thursday, May 3, at 7 p.m., Sally Wright, a specialist in wind energy and a staff engineer at the University of Massachusetts Renewable Energy Research Laboratory (www.ceere.org/rerl) will give a free public presentation entitled "Windpower 101" in the Koussevitzky Arts Center Auditorium (Room K111) at Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield.

Windpower, Avian Friend or Foe?: On Thursday, May 10 at 7 p.m., a six-person panel of experts, representing various backgrounds will make brief presentations, followed by questions and comments from the public.

The forum will be at the Duffin Theater in Lenox Memorial Middle and High School, 197 East St., Lenox, (NOT at the Berkshire Museum as previously publicized)

Presented by the Hoffmann Bird Club and organized by its president, Matt Kelly, the forum has enlisted Tad Ames, president of the Berkshire Natural Resources Council as moderator.

The panel consists of:

• Taber Allison, vice president for conservation science and ecological management at the Mass Audubon Society, who has been immersed in the Cape Wind Project for the past years.
• Bill Evans, who has worked with Cornell University and has spent 20 years studying the migration of birds in North America.
• Andy Finton, director of conservation science for the Massachusetts Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and has served.
• Tom Kunz, professor of biology and director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology at Boston University. His research focuses on the ecology, behavior, evolution, and conservation biology of bats.
• Nancy Nylen, associate director of the Center for Ecological Technology (CET), a non-profit energy and resource conservation organization based in Pittsfield.
• Steve Pelletier, vice president of Woodlot Alternatives. Pelletier is a scientist, consultant, designer and director of many avian studies, with an expertise in ecological evaluations and avian impact assessments associated with wind projects and communication towers throughout the Eastern United States.

QUESTION: Late last week, a small, hawk-like bird flew in and landed on my split-rail fence below some bird feeders. It had a white under belly (from under beak down) and dark gray/almost black back.

When it flew, it appeared that the wings had some stripping on them. It stayed only a minute or two and then flew off and hasn't returned. Any ideas?

T. W., Southfield, MA

ANSWER: Unless I have a better description, I cannot say what you saw. No small (or for that matter, large hawk fits that description.

The closest "hawk-like" bird I can think of is possibly a northern goshawk, although it is 20 inches head to tail, roughly red-tail hawk size.

If you were in Florida at the time of the sighting, I'd say you saw a short-tail hawk which is crow size. So I must assume your sighting was of a 9- to 10-inch northern shrike. I welcome reader suggestions.

QUESTION: I was at Onota Lake today, (April 23) looking for the bald eagles I photographed a few weeks back. They werenít there, but an osprey flew in from the direction of Pontoosuc Lake. It flew in and landed in the same tree the eagles had been in.

My question is, is the osprey uncommon to our area? My bird book I have says that it is, but it's an old book.

H. D., via e-mail

ANSWER: It may be time to get a new bird book, and while you are at it, you might look for a copy of "Return of the Osprey" by David Gessner.

The osprey was, when I was a young birder, a migrant seen mostly in April and May and again in September, with a few scattered reports in early June or August, but today they are also summer residents on many larger bodies of waters in the Northeast.

During the 1950s and 1960s, these birds all but vanished because of DDT. Their recovery, like that of the American bald eagle and peregrine falcon can be attributed to attempts at controlling our negative impact.

Send queries and comments to Thom Smith, Berkshire Museum natural science curator, emeritus to Post Office Box 582, Dalton, MA 01227; e-mail: Naturewatch@yahoo.com