Ecoscape conducted operational monitoring surveys for Carnaby’s Cockatoo and other birds at APA Group’s Badgingarra Wind Farm (BWF) Development Project from February to September 2019.  Surveys were undertaken during two separate flight periods, being February to April 2019 and July to September 2019.  Bird monitoring surveys were undertaken at reference sites and selected turbines during these flight periods.  Mortality surveys were undertaken at eight selected turbines (impact sites) and eight randomly selected turbines (random sites) in three separate survey events within each of the two flight periods.

Site use and abundance surveys to record the abundance of Carnaby’s Cockatoo and other bird species that occurred in the vicinity of the windfarm were undertaken.  Two surveys were conducted in each of the two flight periods.

Separate statistical analysis indicated that there was a significant difference of both the bird composition in general and Carnaby’s Cockatoo count data occurring between the reference and impact sites.  There was no consistent difference between the impact and reference sites between years.  Carnaby’s Cockatoo counts were 90% higher at reference sites compared to the impact sites.  This difference could be due to seasonal differences across years and is not surprising considering the large difference between the number of Carnaby’s Cockatoo counted in 2018 compared to 2019.  This difference hints towards the potential role of turbines reducing the local abundance of Carnaby’s Cockatoos.