1.11. Offshore Ornithology

  1. Offshore ornithology refers to the birds that may interact with the Array. This includes seabirds (birds that spend a lot of their time at sea) and also other birds that may pass through or near the array on migration.
  2. The birds likely to interact with the Array were characterised by both a desk-based review of available information, and site-specific surveys that were undertaken by using digital cameras on aircraft flying over the site to capture videos. Birds were counted and identified from the videos.
  3. It was found that the key bird species to consider were:
  • kittiwake;
  • herring gull;
  • lesser black-backed gull;
  • sandwich tern;
  • little tern;
  • common tern;
  • Arctic tern;
  • great skua;
  • guillemot;
  • razorbill;
  • puffin;
  • European storm petrel;
  • Leach’s storm petrel;
  • Manx shearwater;
  • fulmar; and
  • gannet.
  1. A number of potential impacts on offshore ornithology were identified, associated with the construction, operation and maintenance, and/or decommissioning phases of the Array. These included:
  • temporary habitat loss and disturbance during the construction and decommissioning phases;
  • indirect impacts from construction/decommissioning noise during the construction and decommissioning phases;
  • indirect impacts from UXO clearance during the construction phase;
  • disturbance and displacement from the physical presence of wind turbines and maintenance activities during the operation and maintenance phase;
  • barrier to movement during the operation and maintenance phase;
  • collision with wind turbines during the operation and maintenance phase;
  • changes to prey availability during the construction and decommissioning phases; and
  • entanglement during the operation and maintenance phase.
  1. With the proposed designed in measures in place, all of these impacts result in effects of negligible or minor adverse significance in EIA terms from the Array for all key bird species.
  2. Cumulative impacts arising from the Array together with other projects and plans were assessed and predicted to result in effects of minor adverse significance (not significant in EIA terms) for all impacts (except for the combined impact – collision and displacement on kittiwake populations during the operation and maintenance phase when including Berwick Bank Offshore Wind Farm) .  
  3. No likely significant transboundary effects with regard to offshore ornithology from the Array on the interests of EEA states were predicted.