Illegal Drone flying kills 3000

[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 on our Conservation lands, also. ???

 

[eljimb0]

Next weeks news "Covid restrictions eased in California--3000 dead birds found!" ..."Governor orders a commission to investigate" ..."will cost millions"

 

[Rabber]

Don’t take my word for me it. Simply Google: Bolsa Chica bird eggs

 

[Vic Moss]

Don’t take my word for me it. Simply Google: Bolsa Chica bird eggs

All that will do is pull up the same article over and over again. Or different iterations of the same article. There is no proof the drones did this. There were also multiple other possibilities mentioned in the story.

This is 100% a drone hit piece by an author or wildlife officer with an anti-drone ax to grind.

 

[Rabber]

No, Google shows multiple new agencies and television with actual video showing the damage.

 

[dronerdave]

With the pandemic driving more and more people to outdoor spaces, 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.
“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.”

Typical copy cat news reporting. Every article has the same talking points. Very poorly reported.

 

[Ty Pilot]

I have to agree - this is simply a hit piece, the growing numbers of humans and especially the dogs off lease would have a far greater impact to nesting birds than a single drone.

Where I fly there is a large population of nesting birds and they really take no notice of me when I fly. The real predators here are more likely eagles, hawks and especially alligators that will eat anything that falls into the water, but the birds come back and nest year after year.

 

[halifax]

Outstanding demonstrations of the abject failure of science education in America.

 

[Rabber]

I couldn’t agree more. Complete denial of facts and VIDEO evidence. Equally complete unwillingness to do a simple Google search to verify said facts. Why is that?

 

[sar104]

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.

It may well come across as a hit piece, but the newspaper that first published on this was simply reporting what they were told by the reserve manager and the Department of Fish and Wildlife. That's what they do - they report the news.

And whether or not it is credible that a Mavic 2 Pro (apparently the aircraft in question) could permanently scare off that many birds, it is still pretty clear that these (and other) drones have been flying illegally and harassing the wildlife in that location. So your response itself risks coming across as a knee jerk attempt at deflection that then paints the drone community in a poor light.

 

[Rabber]

Like I said. Complete denial of facts and unwillingness to do a basic Google search. And yes, this denialism and frankly ignorance, reflects badly on the drone community.

 

[Pawpaw Woody]

Click Bait pure and simple!

 

[Gringorio]

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.

This is terrible logic and attitude.

 

[Lets Fly]

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 agree, besides the photo shows about 300 nests and would have to be ten times larger. Even a drone falling at the other end of this photo shouldn't disturb any birds that far away. Something else happening here. Besides blow up the photo, most eggs look like they have been picked open by other predators. I'm sure someone would have had a photo sooner than this.

 

[Lets Fly]

Like I said. Complete denial of facts and unwillingness to do a basic Google search. And yes, this denialism and frankly ignorance, reflects badly on the drone community.

This doesn't reflect badly on anyone. We simply want more proof when accusations reflect badly on the drone community.

 

[sar104]

This doesn't reflect badly on anyone. We simply want more proof when accusations reflect badly on the drone community.

The simple fact that drones were being flown there at all reflects badly on the community.

 

[Lets Fly]

The simple fact that drones were being flown there at all reflects badly on the community.

"No", it reflects badly on the operators of those drones, not all of us. People still rides their cars, and we still fly in airplanes. Accidents happen we don't blame the whole industry.

 

[sar104]

"No", it reflects badly on the operators of those drones, not all of us. People still rides their cars, and we still fly in airplanes. Accidents happen we don't blame the whole industry.

Then what did you mean by saying that this news report reflects badly on the community? Why doesn't the same logic apply there?

 

[Lets Fly]

Then what did you mean by saying that this news report reflects badly on the community? Why doesn't the same logic apply there?

Thats my point that it should not, I may be stating that wrong, but news organizations and people without drone knowledge will try to put us all in the same boat. The accusations should go to the individual, not the community.
Especially if an illegal act was committed.

 

[Chip]

Very foolish for anyone to fly there. And it is very negative publicity that adds to anti drone stereotype. But, I agree with those who question proof of causal connection between one drone crash and abandonment of those eggs. As already pointed out, it could just as easily have been caused by dogs, bicyclists, too many people, or who knows what. The use of loaded word like “kill” in title of post reflects the subjective view of author not scientific or moral fact.