Camilty Wind Farm - Partnerships for Renewables

Camilty Wind Farm
overwintering. For non-breeding or migratory species, consideration at a national scale is
more appropriate than at regional level or lower.
12.3.46 For breeding birds, the regional scale equates to SNH’s Natural Heritage Zones (NHZ) 12 ,
where there is high biogeographical coherence within each zone. In this case, the proposed
Camilty wind farm site just lies within the West Central Belt (NHZ 17) but is within 500 m of
the Border Hills (NHZ 20) and 2 km of the Eastern Lowlands (NHZ 16). The extent of these
NHZs and the location of the proposed wind farm site within/between them is presented in
Figure 12.5. However, given the site’s location at the foot of the Pentland Hills, it is
considered that the Border Hills NHZ more closely reflects the upland moorland and
plantation habitat within and around the development site, and so is used as the primary
reference population. Other populations (e.g. Scottish Raptor Study Group survey areas) will
however be considered where appropriate.
12.3.47 With regard to overwintering migratory species (e.g. pink-footed geese and greylag geese),
SNH consider the national or migratory flyway population to be the most relevant
geographical scale upon which to assess impacts in such species (SNH, 2006).
12.3.48 In order to determine whether the conservation status of a species’ population will be
adversely affected, it is necessary to obtain the best data on each VOR’s current population
and recent trends. These are presented below.
Goshawk
12.3.49 Goshawk is listed in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, although it is greenlisted
in the latest BoCC report (Eaton et al. 2009) due to its expansion since the mid 20th
century. There are thought to be approximately 400 pairs in the UK (Robinson, 2005), with at
least 130 pairs in Scotland (Forrester et al. 2007). The population is slowly expanding from
two main population clusters, one in the Borders and one in northeast Scotland (Marquiss et
al. 2003). Further expansion is predicted in these areas due to the apparent abundance of
breeding habitat in the wider area, mainly coniferous forests which are relatively undisturbed
and free from persecution (Forrester et al. 2007).
12.3.50 In Lothian and Borders (the most representative regional reference area to the Border Hills
NHZ) during 2010, surveys by the Raptor Study Group found a total of 28 out of 58 known
home ranges which were occupied by pairs. Breeding success in the 28 occupied home
ranges was around 2.0 fledged young per nesting pair. This productivity figure is slightly
higher than the Scottish average of 1.9 young per nesting pair (from 97 pairs checked), which
although reasonably high at 82% success, was down on the previous three years recorded
by the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme.
12.3.51 A further 11 home ranges were identified which showed signs of occupancy by at least one
bird (Etheridge et al. 2012). The NHZ breeding population is therefore at least 28 pairs.
However, population estimates of goshawk are likely to be underestimates (Forrester et al.
2007) based on the species’ elusive behaviour (Murray et al. 1998). Therefore, given that the
Lothian and Borders Raptor Study Group surveys will undoubtedly have missed some
unknown breeding pairs, the breeding population is estimated to be in the region of 28-35
pairs. The total population is thus likely to be between 65-85 individual birds.
12 SNH Natural heritage Futures website (http://www.snh.gov.uk/about-snh/what-we-do/nhf/nhf-downloads/).
March 2013 12-37 ES Chapter 12
Ornithology
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