DOI: 10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnz3
title: From dusk till dawn: Ecoacoustic monitoring reveals wind energy impacts on roding Eurasian woodcock (Scolopax rusticola)

description: Renewable energy is vital for reducing carbon emissions, yet its
 infrastructure poses challenges for biodiversity. While wind power impacts
 on bats and raptors are well-studied, effects on elusive species remain
 largely unknown. The Eurasian Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola), a nocturnal
 forest bird, performs characteristic courtship flights at twilight known
 as roding. Despite evidence suggesting potential impacts on the species,
 details regarding the effects of wind energy use in forests on the habitat
 use and roding of Woodcocks remain unclear. We compared the vocal activity
 of Woodcocks at 15 windfarms scattered throughout central Germany. We used
 passive acoustic monitoring in a paired design, with control sites
 situated ≥3 km from wind turbines. We took recordings for three hours at
 dawn and dusk over ten days in June 2023—during peak roding season. We
 validated presumed Woodcock matches by BirdNET to assess precision for the
 species, accompanied by a stratified screening to estimate recall rates.
 We compared true vs. false positive BirdNET hits in relation to the
 twilight periods during dawn and dusk, respectively. Further, we compared
 the presence of Woodcocks as well as their continuity throughout the
 recording period, separately for dusk and dawn. We found that the
 Woodcocks’ roding activity was confined by darkness and by the vocal
 activity of other species (mainly Thrushes), which during the
 morning/evening chorus partially overlapped with the acoustic niche of the
 Woodcocks. Detection probabilities of BirdNET were not affected by
 differences in soundscapes with and without windfarm instalments.
 Likewise, species’ presence did not change between windfarm and control
 sites. However, we found that roding activity of Woodcocks was
 significantly reduced at wind power sites by around 59% (95%CI = 40%-75%).
 We discuss our findings with regards to environmental management of the
 species for windpower planning, including the use of passive acoustic
 monitoring for elusive species.
description: # From dusk till dawn: Ecoacoustic monitoring reveals wind energy impacts
 on roding Eurasian woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnz3](10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnz3) ## Description of the
 data and file structure Excel Table with supporting and raw data used in
 the manuscript. The file contains three sheets: 1.
 "Woodcock_IDs_MS" contains all BirdNET detections of Eurasian
 Woodcocks in the recordings used for the paper. Each detection was
 validated as either TRUE or FALSE. The sheet includes location and time
 information, site information (control or impact, number of windpower
 plants (WEA) as well as the distance to the closest WEA), as well as time
 differences of the detection time relative to solar positions (time
 difference to sunset/sunrise "SASUdiff", time difference to
 transition between civil and nautical twilight "DDdiff", when
 the sun is 6° below horizon, and time difference to the transition between
 nautical and astronomical twilight "NautDD", when sun is 12°
 below horizon). 2. "RecallRecordings" contains site and time
 information on the recordings as well as time stamps between the start and
 end of nautical twilight used to estimate the Recall for BirdNET Woodcock
 detections.   3. "Recall_results" contains the time stamp of the
 Woodcock vocalisations discovered in the recall analysis as well as the
 type of vocalisation detected.  ### Files and variables #### File:
 Engler_et_al_WLB-01492_Data.xlsx **Description:** Excel file containing
 raw data for analysing roding Eurasian Woodcocks ##### Variables (Sheet:
 Woodcock_IDs_MS - Lists all BirdNET detections of presumed Eurasian
 Woodcocks) * Site_pair: Pair ID for a respective site pair containing of a
 site with a nearby windfarm and a control site nearby without windfarms
 within 3 km. * Device: Device ID to link back to original recording files
 (also site ID).  * Date: Date in Format YYYYMMDD * Time: Time (CET) in
 Format HHMMSS * TimeOfDay: categorical "evening" or
 "morning" * detection_sec: second in the recording of a
 respective BirdNET detection of a presumed Eurasian Woodcock *
 detection_time: Time (CET) in Excel date format * Species: scientific name
 (always *Scolopax rusticola*) * Conf: Confidence score given by BirdNET *
 Validated: Binary TRUE or FALSE state from manual validation * Site:
 Indicated whether "windfarm" or "control" site * Lat:
 Latitude (WGS84) * Lon: Longitude (WGS84) * WEA500: Number of windpower
 plants within 500 m around recording site. * nxtWEA_m: Distance (in
 meters) to the closest windpower plant.  * SASUdiff: time difference (in
 decimal minutes) between a detection and sunset/sunrise (sun at 0°
 horizontal position) * DDdiff: time difference (in decimal minutes)
 between a detection and the transition time between civil and nautical
 twilight (sun -6° horizontal position) * NautDD: time difference (in
 decimal minutes) between a detection and the transition time between
 nautical and astronomical twilight (sun -12° horizontal position) #####
 Variables (Sheet: RecallRecordings) * Device: Device ID to link back to
 original recording files (also site ID). * Date: Date in Format YYYYMMDD *
 TimeOfDay: categorical "evening" or "morning" *
 AI_detected: Binary variable, whether BirdNET has detected Eurasian
 Woodcock in the specific recording * AI_detections: Number of BirdNET
 detections of presumed Eurasian Woodcocks in the specific recording *
  site: Indicated whether "windfarm" or "control" site
 * lat: Latitude (WGS84) * lon: Longitude (WGS84) * nautStart: Time stamp
 of the start of the nautical twilight at that site and day (Format:
 DD.MM.YYYY HH:MM:SS) * nautEnds: Time stamp of the end of the nautical
 twilight at that site and day (Format: DD.MM.YYYY HH:MM:SS) * RecStart:
 Time stamp of the begin of the recording at that site and day (Format:
 DD.MM.YYYY HH:MM:SS) * nautStartOffset: Second of the recording where
 nautical twilight starts * nautEndOffset: Second of the recording where
 nautical twilight ends ##### Variables (Sheet: Recall_results) *
 Device: Device ID to link back to original recording files (also site ID).
 * Vocalization (s): Second in the recording when the vocalisation
 happened.  * Type: Type of vocalization (whistle or croak calls), also
 no_Woodcock when no Eurasian Woodcock could be identified in a recording.
 Missing data code: Blank cells and NAs.