Wind turbines blamed for deaths of three sea eagles

Wind turbine blades have been responsible for the deaths of at least three white-tailed sea eagles in the Cork-Kerry area, the National Parks and Wildlife Service has revealed in a report to Bord Pleanála.

More than €1.5m has been invested in the white-tailed sea eagle programme based in the Killarney National Park, and it was now “at a very critical stage”, the wildlife service also said.

It urged that planning permission for a major upland windfarm by ESB Wind Development Ltd, along the Kerry-Cork border within range of the eagles be turned down. Eagles fly from their valley roosts “upslope to upland windfarms” and are at risk of collision as they soar, the NPWS said.