Bird of HEY.... that's MY DRONE! Hawk attacks geek's quadcopter in nature v machine clash A man in the Boston area of the United States has captured remarkable footage of a hawk strike – at the expense of his quadcopter drone. Christopher Schmidt said he was flying his hobby craft in Cambridge earlier this week when a hawk began to circle. Schmidt, who equipped the quadcopter with a GoPro camera, said he powered …
I hope it did not get its feet cut off by the blades. That was a close call.
In any case, if you want a true Hitchcock, try to approach a roosting colony of rooks. There is one with 5k+ birds inhabiting a row of poplars on the edge of a farmer's field about 1km from where I live. They are available for filming opportunities every morning and evening. The ghastly things wake me up every morning at 5:30 am with their discussion of "news of the day" on their way out to farmer fields.
They have actually managed to chase away any birds of prey from the vicinity over the years. Before they moved in there was a family of Peregrins living in the cliffs of an abandoned chalk pit next, sparrowhawks and even the occasional goshawk coming from the woods nearby. All of these have disappeared. If they as much as show up above tree top level they get mobbed including targeted "droppings" bombing runs from all directions.
If you have a drone to lose and some rooks nearby, try it - I give it ~ 10s from the moment they decide it is a nuisance to their society. Tops.
Things you could try
1) You could paint your drone a shiny silvery colour to scare birds off - but beware of the solitary corvids (though I have seen a blackbird drive off a jay)
2) Fit a bird scarer - but the neighbours won't be happy, and the recoil won't help straight flying
3) admit that since the disappearance of the flying 'saurs, that birds are the masters of the air
I wonder what a fight between a herring gull and drone looks like....
The ghastly things wake me up every morning at 5:30 am with their discussion of "news of the day" on their way out to farmer fields.
Be grateful you don't live in Australia. Rooks have voices like Maria Callas compared to the Australian Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo, a large and exceedingly early-rising flock of which have taken up residence in the roadside trees right outside my house. If you haven't heard the raucous, ear-shredding shrieks of these avian abominations you have never experienced true aural agony. Trust me, these damnable creatures constitute the world's most sadistic alarm clock.
If you're feeling particularly masochistic and want to experience for yourself a sample of what I get hauled out of my sweet dreams by every morning, then give this YouTube video a listen. If you can keep that video open for more than 30 seconds, you're either deaf or an ornithological saint!
Agree about the Sulphur Crests, what's interesting about these things is that they can be taught to talk, whistle, sing and laugh so they can make pretty much any noise they choose. They just prefer to squawk. We get them every morning too.
Not quite in the same league as quadcopter drone but my son's RC pterodactyl gets attacked by our thuggish flocks of Noisy Miners.
Ted Hughes was way in front of you there (with A Sparrow Hawk) ...
"Slips from your eye-corner [...] \ Those eyes in their helmet \ Still wired direct \ To the nuclear core – they’re alone \ Laser the lark-shaped hole \ In the lark’s song."
Although we possibly have a drone-shaped hole in this case...
A good mate of mine was flying East of Perth a few years ago, a Wedge Tailed Eagle took exception to him being in the same airspace and attacked the glider, ripping chunks off the Mylar hardened leading edge. He decided to land quickly before the eagle worked out that the "juicy" bits were under the wing :}
He still has photos of it somewhere. I have also seen an Eagle, when he got sick of the pilots following him/her into every thermal ( they make good thermal finders ), deliberately circle in sink to trick the glider pilots into "Bombing Out" ( loosing lots of altitude )
An adult female "Wedgie" can weigh in at 5 or 6 Kg, be about 3 to 4 feet long with a wingspan of around 7 to 8 feet. Apparently the largest verified wingspan recorded for this style of Eagle was in excess of 9 feet
( I swear I have seen bigger, heavier ones out near Leonora/Laverton way but have no photos or specimens to prove it )
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