Yet its latest publication – a report headed “The RSPB’s 2050 Energy Vision” – says little about birds. Not only does it call for Britain’s target for cutting CO2 emissions to be raised from an improbable 80 per cent to an impossible 100 per cent, it also says “our research shows the UK could have six times the current level of onshore wind turbines”. Since we already have 5,500 of them, the RSPB would thus be happy to see 25,000 more littering our countryside.

Yet studies show that the prime victims of turbine blades are birds and bats, notably birds of prey that like to hunt over just the kind of landscapes that are most profitable for wind-farm owners. The Spanish Society for Ornithology found that Spain’s 18,000 turbines kill up to six million birds a year, averaging as many as 300 birds per turbine. This confirmed the findings of a scientific paper 20 years ago, which discovered that each German turbine killed on average 309 birds a year. More recently, a German government ornithologist estimated that every year they kill between 200 and 300 red kites alone. One vast Californian wind farm killed so many birds, including many rare eagles, it was shut down.