In connection with the construction of the 2 × 400 kV Żydowo Kierzkowo-Słupsk power line, the Regional Director for Environmental Protection in Gdańsk imposed an obligation on the investor to carry out a two-year post-investment monitoring of the impact of the line on avifauna.

The indicated monitoring lasted overall from August 2020 to July 2022. In 2022, the cost of post-implementation monitoring was PLN 19,833 net (until July 2022, when it ended).

In 2022, the contractor conducted post-implementation monitoring on:

• bird mortality surveys in designated 5 sections with a total length of 3,600 metres – one inspection every 10 days or so from March to July 2022;
• bird counts from 5 observation points – every 10 days or so from March to July 2022.

Fifteen inspections were performed in 2022, three per month, with an interval of approx. 10 days, both in points and searches for dead individuals were made. There were no sites of particularly intensive migration of migratory birds or high concentrations of resting and feeding sites.

The largest flocks observed were for groupings of breeding starlings or migrating geese at high altitude. Small groupings of up to a few dozen cranes and whooper swans formed in corn stubble field near Mzdowo. No migrations of whooper swans and black-headed swans were detected during the 2022 inspection.

In total, the remains of 11 birds were found in 2022. In 10 cases, collision with cables was identified as the most likely cause of death. The data obtained indicates an average mortality rate of 2.78 victims/km/year in 2022. The data obtained indicates average mortality of birds due to collisions with line components in the controlled sections. There was no need to implement additional measures to reduce the negative impact of the 2 × 400 kV Żydowo Kierzkowo-Słupsk line on bird species. The monitoring results for 2022, together with a summary for the entire two-year monitoring period, were submitted to the Regional Director of Environmental Protection in Gdańsk on October 14, 2022. On November 25, 2022, the Regional Director of Environmental Protection in Gdańsk, having analysed the submitted materials, concluded that the scope of the documentation met the conditions specified in the decision on environmental conditions, and the results obtained indicate average mortality of birds due to collisions with line components in the controlled sections. On the basis of the presented analyses, the Regional Director of Environmental Protection in Gdańsk did not find it necessary to introduce additional measures to reduce the negative impact of the 2 × 400 kV Żydowo Kierzkowo-Słupsk double-circuit overhead line on avifauna.

The osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is one of the rarest birds of prey in Poland and is under strict protection. According to the statistics kept by the Eagle Protection Committee, our country is currently inhabited by only 22 couples of these animals, and some of them inhabit areas near power infrastructure.

The installation of osprey platforms on power poles is a good and proven practice in addition to the installation of platforms on trees. It is used, among others, in Germany, where about one third of the osprey population nests on high voltage poles. Protecting nests in this way increases the chance of birds settling in.

The construction of nesting platforms for ospreys is a continuation of measures commenced by PSE in 2014. Installation of another 3 nesting platforms was carried out in 2021 on supporting structures (poles) of EHV lines: Krajnik-Glinki, Morzyczyn-Police and Krajnik-Vierraden. Since the start of the project, 9 platforms have been successfully installed on power poles.