{"id":24540,"date":"2013-01-21T15:17:12","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/static\/?p=24540"},"modified":"2013-01-21T22:58:53","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T03:58:53","slug":"confessions-of-a-windfarm-bird-kill-control-specialist-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/2013\/confessions-of-a-windfarm-bird-kill-control-specialist-michigan\/","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of a windfarm bird-kill “control specialist” (Michigan)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Editor’s note<\/em>: \u00a0In the 10 years (Has it been that long?) I’ve been documenting Big Wind’s crimes against the earth and all that dwell therein, I must say I have never read a document as poignant and enraging as this one, below. \u00a0This poem by\u00a0Mitchell Grabois.<\/p>\n

Mr. Grabois was a resident of a new “windfarm” in Ludington (Mason County), Michigan, till he moved away, after fifty-six turbines moved into the neighborhood. \u00a0Each 1.8 MW. \u00a0Fifty-six turbines which began generating ILFN, slaughtering birds, and driving the neighbors mad—on Thanksgiving Day, 2012.<\/p>\n

I learned about Mr. Grabois from a correspondent who wrote the following.<\/p>\n

On Saturday I spent the day with Cary and Karen Shineldecker, “residents” of the\u00a0“wind park.” \u00a0They shared an amazing poem with me, written by one of their\u00a0neighbors, who, luckily, managed to sell his home and get out. \u00a0The poem was\u00a0posted<\/a> two days ago on an\u00a0arts and poetry blog.<\/p>\n

Cary and Karen are trying to sell their home. \u00a0They both have significant symptoms. \u00a0\u00a0Cary was on Wind Wise Radio<\/a> last night. \u00a0They both have headaches. \u00a0Can’t sleep. \u00a0Exhaustion.<\/p>\n

They also wake up with panic attacks and have to take sleeping pills and beer before bedtime, just to get some sleep. \u00a0Their pillows are just 1139 feet from the nearest turbine, which is situated on a knoll above them, so audible and low frequency noise funnels down to their bedroom.<\/p>\n

I thought you might like this poem, written by a former “wind park” resident and who did get out of his acoustically toxic home. \u00a0That “park” has a lot of people suffering from symptoms right now. \u00a0It’s only been plugged in since Thanksgiving. \u00a0Setbacks are ridiculous. \u00a0Oh, and there are a hell of a lotta “leasers”\u00a0who signed easements for a whopping $100! \u00a0And these people are all gagged and their setbacks are \u00a0approximately 900 feet!<\/p>\n

Only in Michigan would somebody sign an easement for 100 dollars! \u00a0These are not folks “hosting” turbines; these are folks on tiny properties who got conned.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Birds<\/span><\/h1>\n

I\u2019m an Animal Control Specialist
\na special kind
\nI don\u2019t capture feral cats
\nor snarling dogs
\ndon\u2019t deal with skunks
\nor live critters of any kind<\/p>\n

I pick up dead birds at the base of wind turbines
\nand put them in plastic sacks<\/p>\n

I sometimes see the
\nmoment of impact
\nwhen flight and life simultaneously cease
\nOnce I caught an eagle as it plummeted to earth
\nI didn\u2019t know what to do with it
\nOn impulse I hugged and kissed it goodbye
\nthen felt stupid
\nwas glad no one was there to see<\/p>\n

I never knew birds were so intent on their destinations
\nso obsessive-compulsive and unaware
\nI\u2019ve seen them swerve mid-air to avoid my car\u2019s bumper
\nbut up in the sky five-hundred feet
\nthey don\u2019t expect cars<\/p>\n

They get into a rhythm of flight
\nin which their blood assumes
\nthat the elevations are free of
\nobstacles\u2019 strife
\nbut blades express their evil intent
\nby spinning<\/p>\n

I live within the perimeters of this \u201cwind farm\u201d
\nin my old family farmhouse
\nMany of these farmhouses have tumbled down
\nMore will tumble as people escape
\nthe noise and flicker
\nand the weird unexpected symptoms they bring
\nthe pressure in the ears
\ndizziness and nausea
\nthe inability to concentrate
\nI can go on
\nbut part of my contract is that I can\u2019t talk about it
\ncan\u2019t even mention it<\/p>\n

So just forget it
\nYou didn\u2019t hear it from me<\/p>\n

No one will buy these fucking houses
\nThey are as damned as if they\u2019d been erected
\nin a Stephen King novel<\/p>\n

My grandfather used to sit on the front porch
\nand listen to birdsong
\nand he\u2019d say to me: Did you hear that?
\nDo you know who that is?
\nas if the bird were a human being I\u2019d met
\nan uncle or aunt
\nwhose voice I should recognize<\/p>\n

Jays, chickadees, robins, red-winged blackbirds
\nI don\u2019t hear them anymore
\ncan\u2019t hear them through the constant loud drone
\nof turbine acoustic pollution
\nthe whirring blades
\nthe grinding gears<\/p>\n

But I make my living picking up the dead birds
\nI pluck the feathers
\nbefore I dispose of them
\nand store them in old shoe boxes
\nin my grandfather\u2019s office
\nwhere he wrote poems and published them in farm journals
\nunder the pen name Al Falfa<\/p>\n

I know I\u2019m crazy, but I think maybe my dead grandpa
\nruns his hands through those loose feathers at night
\nthe loose feathers of dead birds
\nwhose ancestors he lived with<\/p>\n

You might think my job is not full-time
\nbut it is
\nbecause my boss at Consumer\u2019s Energy
\nwants the birds gone
\npronto!
\nas soon as they hit the ground
\nif possible
\nHe doesn\u2019t want them laying around
\nfor the anti-windmill photographers
\nto document
\nso all day I\u2019m driving my rattle-trap Mazda pick-up
\nfrom one end of the township to the other<\/p>\n

I grew up here
\nlived here all my life
\nbut I never knew the place
\n\u201clike the back of my hand\u201d
\nuntil I followed Death around<\/p>\n

—Mitchell Grabois
\n<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The

The Wounded Angel, Hugo Simberg<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: \u00a0In the 10 years (Has it been that long?) I’ve been documenting Big Wind’s crimes against the earth and all that dwell therein, I must say I have never read a document as poignant and enraging as this one, below. \u00a0This poem by\u00a0Mitchell Grabois. Mr. Grabois was a resident of a new “windfarm” in Ludington (Mason County), Michigan, till he moved away, after fifty-six turbines moved into the neighborhood. \u00a0Each 1.8 MW. \u00a0Fifty-six turbines which began generating ILFN, slaughtering birds, and driving the neighbors mad—on Thanksgiving Day, 2012. I learned about Mr. Grabois from a correspondent who wrote the following. On Saturday I spent the day with Cary and Karen Shineldecker, “residents” of the\u00a0“wind park.” \u00a0They shared an amazing poem with me, written by one of their\u00a0neighbors, who, luckily, managed to sell his home and get out. \u00a0The poem was\u00a0posted two days ago on an\u00a0arts and poetry blog. Cary and Karen are trying to sell their home. \u00a0They both have significant symptoms. \u00a0\u00a0Cary was on Wind Wise Radio last night. \u00a0They both have headaches. \u00a0Can’t sleep. \u00a0Exhaustion. They also wake up with panic attacks and have to take sleeping pills and beer before bedtime, just to get some sleep. \u00a0Their pillows are just 1139 feet from the nearest turbine, which is situated on a knoll above them, so audible and low frequency noise funnels down to their bedroom. I thought you might like this poem, written by a former “wind park” resident and who did get out of his acoustically toxic home. \u00a0That “park” has a lot of people suffering from symptoms right now. \u00a0It’s only been plugged in since Thanksgiving. \u00a0Setbacks are ridiculous. \u00a0Oh, and there are a hell of a lotta “leasers”\u00a0who signed easements for a whopping $100! \u00a0And these people are all gagged and theirRead More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[171,157,167,168,166,16,169],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}