Illegal Drone flying kills 3000

[Rabber]

3,000 eggs abandoned after drone scares birds in California


Some 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a Southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds, a newspaper reported Friday.


Two drones were flown illegally over the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach in May and one of them went down in the wetlands, The Orange County Register said.
Fearing an attack from a predator, several thousand terns abandoned their ground nests, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.


Now, during the month when the white birds would be overseeing their eggs as they begin to hatch, the sand is littered with egg shells.


It's one of the largest-scale abandonment of eggs ever at the coastal site about 100 miles (160 km) north of San Diego, according to reserve manager Melissa Loebl.

 

[brett8883]

3,000 eggs abandoned after drone scares birds in California


Some 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a Southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds, a newspaper reported Friday.


Two drones were flown illegally over the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach in May and one of them went down in the wetlands, The Orange County Register said.
Fearing an attack from a predator, several thousand terns abandoned their ground nests, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.


Now, during the month when the white birds would be overseeing their eggs as they begin to hatch, the sand is littered with egg shells.


It's one of the largest-scale abandonment of eggs ever at the coastal site about 100 miles (160 km) north of San Diego, according to reserve manager Melissa Loebl.

It’s unfortunate about the eggs.

However, I do think it should be pointed out there is nothing illegal about flying over this area. I also think in the interest of reporting the facts it’s necessary to mention the Elegant Tern is not a threatened nor protected species.

 

[Rabber]

What part about “being flown illegally “ And ECOLOGICAL PRESERVE do you not understand?

 

[brett8883]

What part about “being flown illegally “ And ECOLOGICAL PRESERVE do you not understand?

Ok you are right there may be some law against disturbing birds during nesting season, I just meant this isn’t restricted airspace or anything. Again terrible situation i wasn’t trying to minimize it or anything.

 

[maintenanceguy]

I don't believe it. Prey birds deal with predators every day. If birds abandoned their nests every time a predator bird showed up, there would be no more birds. If the article said one nest, or two nests were abandoned - maybe. 3,000 eggs abandoned because of a drone? No way.

 

[dirkclod]

3,000 eggs abandoned after drone scares birds in California


Some 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a Southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds, a newspaper reported Friday.


Two drones were flown illegally over the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach in May and one of them went down in the wetlands, The Orange County Register said.
Fearing an attack from a predator, several thousand terns abandoned their ground nests, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.


Now, during the month when the white birds would be overseeing their eggs as they begin to hatch, the sand is littered with egg shells.


It's one of the largest-scale abandonment of eggs ever at the coastal site about 100 miles (160 km) north of San Diego, according to reserve manager Melissa Loebl.

Do you have a link for this ?
Other than that you’ve just started clickbait thread and I will delete
this.

 

[spudster]

Do you have a link for this ?
Other than that you’ve just started clickbait thread and I will delete
this.

Easy to find with a quick google.

3,000 eggs abandoned after drone scares birds in California

Fearing an attack from a predator, several thousand terns abandoned their ground nests.

www.kolotv.com

3,000 eggs abandoned after drone scares birds in California

Some 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a Southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds

abcnews.go.com

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2021-06-04/3-000-eggs-abandoned-after-drone-scares-birds-in-california

 

[Recoveryone]

I don't believe it. Prey birds deal with predators every day. If birds abandoned their nests every time a predator bird showed up, there would be no more birds. If the article said one nest, or two nests were abandoned - maybe. 3,000 eggs abandoned because of a drone? No way.

I saw the News cast, and local Park Rangers were issuing citations (No Warnings) given.

 

[Meta4]

Did a drone flight cause this?
According to the reports listed in post #8 there were other disturbances, that probably had a more serious effect.

last year saw about 100,000 visitors to the Bolsa Chica reserve – up from about 60,000 the previous year, Loebl said told the newspaper.​

That’s contributed not only to increased drone activity, but also to more dogs and bicycles on the trails – all of which are prohibited.​

“We’ve seen a significant increase in dogs, particularly off-leash,” Loebl said. “That’s devastating for wildlife and this is prime nesting season. The dogs chase the birds and the birds abandon their nests.”​

​

You would need better information before you could say that drones were the problem.

 

[maintenanceguy]

I saw the News cast, and local Park Rangers were issuing citations (No Warnings) given.

And I think that's why the number is reported so unbelievably high. More likely to get penalties to stick and possibly more serious charges if the number of displaced birds are really high.

I manage a lot of commercial space. We get vandalism once in a while and I am the one that usually deals with the police when they come out to fill out a report. They always ask the dollar value of the damage because there are different tiers of crime depending on how expensive the damage is. If I say "a few hundred dollars" the police officer will often ask "could it be $X". They want a high dollar amount on their report so they can charge the vandal with the highest tier crime possible - even if they weren't really guilty of committing a crime in that tier.

 

[dirkclod]

Did a drone flight cause this?
According to the reports listed in post #8 there were other disturbances, that probably had a more serious effect.

last year saw about 100,000 visitors to the Bolsa Chica reserve – up from about 60,000 the previous year, Loebl said told the newspaper.​

That’s contributed not only to increased drone activity, but also to more dogs and bicycles on the trails – all of which are prohibited.​

“We’ve seen a significant increase in dogs, particularly off-leash,” Loebl said. “That’s devastating for wildlife and this is prime nesting season. The dogs chase the birds and the birds abandon their nests.”​

​

You would need better information before you could say that drones were the problem.

Got to agree 100%

 

[dirkclod]

Easy to find with a quick google.

3,000 eggs abandoned after drone scares birds in California

Fearing an attack from a predator, several thousand terns abandoned their ground nests.

www.kolotv.com

3,000 eggs abandoned after drone scares birds in California

Some 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a Southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds

abcnews.go.com

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2021-06-04/3-000-eggs-abandoned-after-drone-scares-birds-in-california

Thanks for the links and still think it’s just more propaganda.
Title of thread says (

Illegal Drone flying kills 3000)​

?
Sorry but as a retired GameWarden I know better. Yawl
can keep on but I know better. ?

 

[DoomMeister]

Excuse me, but one drone crashing in a marsh on an island is not going to cause that many birds to abandon there nests no way no how. Low level over flight may cause a temporary escape

Much more believable is the off leash dogs causing the abandonment. This is the reason many golf courses use dogs to keep geese from nesting and causing E. coli blooms in ponds and excessive fecal release on greens, fairways, and tee boxes.

Maybe the rangers should consider closing the island during nesting until the eggs have hatched, but then there would be too much money lost from those paying to go to the island.

 

[ninja_geezer]

I don't believe it. Prey birds deal with predators every day. If birds abandoned their nests every time a predator bird showed up, there would be no more birds. If the article said one nest, or two nests were abandoned - maybe. 3,000 eggs abandoned because of a drone? No way.

Too quick to blame the drone me thinks.....

 

[halifax]

Maybe the people who work with this species know their behavioral ecology better than most. Abandonment of nests, young, and habitat from singular disturbances is not an anomaly. No shortage of scientific papers on this. I'm a wildlife ecologist, I've studied the subject in great detail (on everything from hiking to mountaineering to mountain biking to drones) because it affects how I manage thousands of acres of protected lands. This is an absolutely plausible story.

 

[Vic Moss]

There is so much wrong with this story. And so much unknown.

There is literally no way to know why the birds abandoned the nests. It seems like the "writer" has an ax to grind. This sentence right here is all you need to know about the agenda of said writer, "Fearing an attack from a predator, several thousand terns abandoned their ground nests, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife."

The only way they'd know that is if they had Dr. Dolittle on staff at the DFW.

It's purely conjecture at this point, and given that the author goes on to show other contributing factors, shows the complete bias of the DFW employee(s) interviewed.

The headline could have just as easily said "Dogs kill 3000 eggs". And that would likely have been more accurate.

This is a hit piece on drones.

 

[Mike Mas]

Bottom line we have no idea or proof a drone had anything what so ever to do with this - it's just another tree hugger trying to take drones out of the sky!

Beginning with the mis-leading title of this thread "Kills 3000" it's all worthless fake news reporting. This propaganda only hurts those who are flying respectful!

 

[Rabber]

I don't believe it. Prey birds deal with predators every day. If birds abandoned their nests every time a predator bird showed up, there would be no more birds. If the article said one nest, or two nests were abandoned - maybe. 3,000 eggs abandoned because of a drone? No way.

Your right..newspapers and tv networks made the whole thing up.

 

[DLittle]

I was flying near some cliffs and noticed ravens following my drone, checking out my every move. I noticed they have nests in the nearby cliffs. They stuck around after I left.

 

[DavidT_ NZ]

3,000 eggs abandoned after drone scares birds in California


Some 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a Southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds, a newspaper reported Friday.


Two drones were flown illegally over the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach in May and one of them went down in the wetlands, The Orange County Register said.
Fearing an attack from a predator, several thousand terns abandoned their ground nests, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.


Now, during the month when the white birds would be overseeing their eggs as they begin to hatch, the sand is littered with egg shells.


It's one of the largest-scale abandonment of eggs ever at the coastal site about 100 miles (160 km) north of San Diego, according to reserve manager Melissa Loebl.

Since the Ecological Reserve is administered by the California State Government, presumably their restrictions on flying “aircraft, hovercraft or hot air balloons” without a Special Use Permit would apply here. No Permit, no drone (presumably being an aircraft, for FAA purposes). We have similar restrictions over our Conservation lands in NZ. ???