Wind Turbines
Contributors to this thread:General Topic
From: Thornton
04-Apr-24
Anybody on here hunt around them? I'm wondering if they affect deer movements. The property I have an opportunity to buy is less than a quarter mile from the closest turbine and I have found very little deer sign on it.
From: Nyati
04-Apr-24
We have some on the high ridges in WV. I’ve never seen deer close to them and they’re in clearings surrounded by woods. They are loud and would take away hearing as a defense. But IDK for sure, never hunted close to them
From: fdp
04-Apr-24
Depends who you ask but mostly once they have been there a while they pay no attention to them.
From: WV Mountaineer
04-Apr-24
In WV, they pay attention to them. They’ve been here for 20 years or more.
Theres something about the unknown, when it’s above a deers head, that they will not tolerate. It must be a prey thing. I’ve never seen a deer in WV near one. And, don’t suspect I ever will.
From: Glunt@work
04-Apr-24
The turbines themselves are tolerable to deer but they dont like stepping over all the eagle carcasses :^)
From: craigmcalvey
05-Apr-24
They don’t seem to bother them in Michigan. When they built the ones on my dad’s land we were told 2 years before they’d be tolerant of them. It was more like 2 days. As soon as the constant traffic from construction was gone the deer were everywhere around them and haven’t seem bothered in the least.
From: Michael
05-Apr-24
We built some in Campbell county in SD in 2015. I decided to deer hunt the area in 2017.
If I had another 2 seconds I would have had a really good buck.
Spotted a buck walking looking for a date in a picked corn field. Thought what the heck I will see how close I could get. I stopped at 30 yards. Drew my bow and just when I hit full draw he turned saw me and bolted. The whole time all you could hear was the wind noise from the blades while the rotor was spinning. We were right under the turbine.
The property was 160 acres and had one turbine on it. That evening there was a dozen deer total feeding all around on the property.
From: Blood
05-Apr-24
Hard to hunt around them when they are 35 miles offshore. Lol
From: 12yards
05-Apr-24
I've hunted waterfowl around them. They didn't seem to care. Personally I think they look like hell.
From: Boatman71
05-Apr-24
Those turbines probably gave all of the deer within 5 miles of one cancer and they died...
From: Bowaddict
05-Apr-24
Just from my observations and experience in eastern CO and Nebraska. They put them up in clusters out here and while I have observed pronghorn and mule deer on the outskirts not too far away, I’ve never seen them walking amongst them. I’ve never had any luck with pheasants near them, but if any animal would adapt to being close to them it would be the whitetail.
From: Brotsky
05-Apr-24
Hunted around them for over a decade. They don't have an effect. The extra vehicle traffic and human activity around them on the other hand does.
From: Thornton
05-Apr-24
I appreciate the input guys. I went ahead and bought it. I was on my south fence when I took this photo looking across to the ranch where the turbines are. Really looking forward to making this my next project!
From: Two Feathers
05-Apr-24
To the west of me about 30 miles they have wind turbines, a lot of them. Driving by I've seen deer on neighboring properties. I wouldn't want to buy property next to the wind turbines, deer or no deer.
From: DL
05-Apr-24
From: Ben
05-Apr-24
Just heard there maybe a connection between the wind turbine on the east coast in the ocean ( that has been killing whales) and the earthquake though. LOL
From: Cheesehead Mike
06-Apr-24
Last year's Kansas buck with turbine in the background. Don't know if the turbines affect the deer but I've seen quite a few deer not far from them.
From: JohnMC
06-Apr-24
I hunt around them a fair amount in CO. Does not seem to effect mule deer or antelope much. Certainly ugly addition to some beautiful country. Landowners that have them on their ranches mostly seem to like them. They get paid fairly well to have them on their land and most like the roads to get around on their ranches.
From: Thornton
06-Apr-24
Part of the reason I bought this 110 acres. I figured if the wind farm ever expanded, the place would pay for itself.
From: JB
07-Apr-24
Looks like an old buck Mike. Nice one!
From: buckeye
07-Apr-24
Congrats on the new land Thornton, what do you plan on doing with that chunk?
From: Thornton
07-Apr-24
It's a project. Scratch out 20 acres of plots in the low spots, cabin, well, windmill or solar pump, make a runway and hunt it. It has over 13,000 acre of public hunting and a lake within a few miles of it. My friend's 5,000 acre ranch is nearby as well that I hunt twice a year. There are some really big ranches that butt up next to it so I'm hoping I can lure a big one onto the property. It has sandy soil, so I'm not sure building a pond would work out, and the nearest creek is almost a mile away. Everything I have in mind is at least a 5 year project.
From: Bwhnt
07-Apr-24
Maybe you'll find some sheds if you comb it over?
From: DL
07-Apr-24
Speaking of sheds on property. I wonder if anyone that’s selling a hunting property has salted the land with some giant sheds to entice buyers?
From: Thornton
07-Apr-24
I only spent about 30 minutes walking it and saw nothing but a rabbit, a few doe tracks, coyote prints, fresh horse tracks from the soon-to-be previous owner, and a hen turkey track.
From: Bwhnt
07-Apr-24
DL I wouldn't doubt that one single bit.
From: Nyati
07-Apr-24
Deer use their ears almost as much as nose to detect danger. If u have ever been under them u can’t hear yourself think
From: KSflatlander
07-Apr-24
I've been directly under them hundreds of times. You can talk in a normal conversation level voice and hear someone just fine. They aren't that loud. It's a low rhythmic hum. A truck driving down a gravel road makes a lot more noise. Or trains, highway noise, airplanes, ect.
IMO the light pollution is a bigger issue. But they are starting to make wind farms have FAA lighting systems that only come on when a plane is in proximity to reduce light pollution.
From: buckeye
07-Apr-24
I hope your plots go well Jason, post pics of the work in progress. I'd like to see what you do with it.
From: Nyati
07-Apr-24
Must be different windmills than I was under
From: Cheesehead Mike
08-Apr-24
I'm no expert but I was directly under a few of them several times last fall. The noise I observed ranged from nothing at all to a low rhythmic hum to a rhythmic roar like a huge helicopter rotor. The tip of one of the blades on one of the turbines must have had a chip in it or an irregularity or possibly a chunk of red tailed hawk stuck to it because it made a high pitched whistling sound that sounded like a jet every time it passed by. Also I was under one at night when the wind was strong and the roaring sound the blades made as they passed by about every second was very loud. It was somewhat unnerving having the blades roaring by overhead and I had to talk to myself a little and reassure myself that it wasn't going to hit me. I can see where an animal lacking the power of deductive reasoning could be scared and avoid them. I was impressed with the noise enough that I took a couple videos while standing under the turbines. Too bad there's not an option to post a video on bowsite.
It doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that the tips of those blades are sometimes traveling over 200 mph. Anything slicing through the air at that speed is going to make some sound.
Back when I was working and was a County Surveyor and in charge of Zoning and Land Use we drafted and adopted a countywide wind turbine ordinance. I read all kinds of studies regarding their negative effects such as noise, lighting issues, shadow flicker caused by sunlight passing through the blades, etc, etc...
From: shade mt
08-Apr-24
I don't know ,but a whole row of them sticking up across a mt sure looks ugly.
From: Murph
08-Apr-24
Would t think it should bother, the ones in my area are never running so minimal affect
