2005, Environmentally Sustainable Systems Ltd., Kentish Flats Offshore Wind Farm, Monitoring Report series https://portal.medin.org.uk/portal/start.php?tpc=015_d5c51bcc-a1cf-4e44-a458-6e94fa2cacb0 This Third Monitoring report analyses the results of the 17 boat surveys from December 2004 to November 2005 for the Kentish Flats Wind Farm, and includes aerial data collected over six surveys during the same period in the area surrounding the wind farm. The purpose of this report is to meet the FEPA license monitoring requirements determined by DEFRA (following advice from English Nature) as a planning consent condition for the construction of the Kentish Flats project. Population estimates with means and standard errors for the wind farm site and buffer zone and for the control site have been calculated using the data collected during each of the 70 boat surveys since October 2001. Standard errors have been updated and improved by the larger (4-year) dataset. Relative abundance indices have been calculated with standard errors for all WWT aerial surveys covering Kentish Flats. Tests have revealed no statistically significant changes between the preconstruction and construction periods. The statistical comparisons of the boat and aerial survey data from the pre-construction and construction periods do not reveal any statistically significant changes in the abundances of bird populations (FEPA Objective 1). The boat analyses are somewhat restricted by the lack of comparable data from the control area, especially during the peak diver period, and the lack of consistency in the dates on which surveys were completed, together with the natural and in some cases extensive seasonal and inter-annual variation in the numbers and distributions of bird populations. Patterns of use and passage in and around the Kentish Flats wind farm, revealed by the mapped distributions of birds seen, do show some changes between years but in most cases it is not possible to attribute these changes to the construction of the wind farm. Even though no changes in bird abundance were statistically significant, the estimates suggest that the numbers of red-throated divers and lesser black-backed gulls had gone down (although numbers of divers observed remain low compared with other parts of the Thames Estuary) and the numbers of herring gulls had gone up. Fewer common tern flights through the wind farm site to some extent (although no statistical difference in populations is apparent). 20060720