Osprey (the bird) - close encounter

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Where did you encounter this cool yet scary event? Location that is. I live in Cazadero California in the Russian River Valley. Filming Ospreys in their nest is one the things I want to do. I guess I should rethink it or atleast be very wary that could happen.

Thanks for sharing. Steve.

Steve, please do not do this. And I don't mean because of the risks to your aircraft.

Flying close to Osprey (and other birds) nests can cause lots of problems / hardships on the birds. They may even abandon the nest with offspring; but even if they don't do that or have offspring, you may cause them to relocate and build another nest, another hardship (they already prepared one, and now you're taking time out of their feeding and mating times to build another).

The best way to photograph an osprey nest is with a big telephoto lens from a good distance, and unless you have one of the big UAV rigs, that cancel's out drone photography.

Chris

 

[Deleted member 92101]

Please note that osprey are Federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It is unlawful to take birds. "Take" includes disturbing or harrassing. Such acts could cause birds to move from the area and abandon nests with offspring or eggs. Fines are up to $25K AND possible jail. These birds are just recovering from the environmental impact of DDT so please avoid disturbing these birds. This is nesting season!

 

[gnormand]

couple of years ago, was flying around a known Osprey nest...wondering what was in it. Apparently, the family didn't appreciate the intrusion
on the chicks. In short order, there were 4 or 5 birds dive bombing my P3. It worked...I got out of there and flew somewhere else. Got some
great pics of the defenders, but decided to delete them, lest an overzealous animal rights activist accuse me of something.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

It would have been best if you had said that you deleted the images because you realized your mistake.

Because someone accusing you of 'doing something' (wrong is the proper term here) would not have been overzealous at all.

I think everyone here understands the attraction, and many of us come this knowledge through the experience of blundering into it, but we learn from our mistakes. Let's not blame endangered wildlife guardians for this.

Chris

PS: and please, let's not confuse animal protection organizations in general with extreme examples of overreach, such as certain vocal-minority organizations that would rather we didn't even have pets, which is overzealous indeed (IMO).

 

[GH02050]

Meet Ronald McDonald, formally EagleOne.
If the birds find this skin appealing, I will peal it off and try again.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

It looks like a crab.

 

[GH02050]

Oh great, that should be a lot of fun with the Seagulls.
Lucky for me skins are pretty inexpensive and east to remove

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Well, it looks like an EVIL TEMPERED crab. Now all you need is to put a frickin' laser beam on it.

 

[Mike4884]

Here's one that I encountered with my Phantom 4 Pro V2 last year....he or she was super cool I did not bother he/she this is just a very cropped in photo as you can see he is tearing up a fish

 

[Rackminster]

Very cool story. Where I live we have a lot of birds of prey around and I'm always worried about one of them taking offense to my drone. So far it hasn't happened - but you never know when it will.

My whole plan revolves around "UP UP UP" and then "HOME HOME HOME" before anything bad happens. I hear that they can dive and attack well, but can't climb straight up easily.

I don't know how you can even SEE your drone at 300', especially if you look at your screen for a couple seconds then try to reacquire it.

I've got 20/15 distance vision, and can see my drone quite a ways out - but it depends entirely on the weather and sky conditions. I'm mostly looking out for anything else in the area where my drone is that might cause problems. Ospreys are far larger than my Mavic, and would stand out in the sky.

 

[Steve LaBranche]

Steve, please do not do this. And I don't mean because of the risks to your aircraft.

Flying close to Osprey (and other birds) nests can cause lots of problems / hardships on the birds. They may even abandon the nest with offspring; but even if they don't do that or have offspring, you may cause them to relocate and build another nest, another hardship (they already prepared one, and now you're taking time out of their feeding and mating times to build another).

The best way to photograph an osprey nest is with a big telephoto lens from a good distance, and unless you have one of the big UAV rigs, that cancel's out drone photography.

Chris

Hi Chris. So, before reading your reply. I did an experimental flight on what I was for sure was an empty nest, I drive by the redwood it nests in everyday. Long story short it was not an empty nest. As I approached from above, I heard a screeeetch. I beat feet and Hit RTH ASAP. I will never do it again.

I pass on to all that read this, I echo what Cereal, Chris, says. Use a large telephoto lens. Hike uphill if that's it takes to get the shot you want. Never use a drone to capture nesting birds, EVER!!

Fly safe... Steve

 

[Shon]

Never really had a problem with birds until I got a Mavic Air. This thing is a bird magnet...I think it screams "insect buffet...ALL YOU CAN EAT!!"

 

[lenal]

I put a bright yellow skin on my batteries and birds still fly aggressively toward it. I would say 70 % of the flights i do have at least one bird aggression encounter. most flights i do are over or near water.

 

[GH02050]

I did some flying yesterday and the day before at the beach and Marina. Lot's of seagulls around and the Osprey's were around too, but this time not a single bird gave the drone a second look. One flight isn't enough evidence to say but I think the bright skin (red/yellow) I put on mine is helping. Time will tell.

 

[Drgnfli]

I've had a "raptor" whack my MP once. It was too far away to determine the species. It managed to crack a prop & scratch the top side of my MP with its claws. I was very lucky to be able to bring it home. I hope the bird got a good whack from my props & might think twice about attacking drones. I was filming but never saw the bird, just a sudden jerky movement that spun my MP around. Beautiful place to fly but I won't fly there anymore.