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What are these drones???

mattsavage

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Okay, I’m not a conspiracy theorist type person…. These are not UFOs, at least not in the extraterrestrial sense. I know they’re drones, I saw and heard them several times, they are not birds. Three different times within a span of about 15 minutes. I saw groups of multiple small drones flying together in this sort of hive/swarm formation, behaving rather erratically together.

Link: Weird drone behavior

I was camped in a very remote part of Oregon, up on the cascades mountains crest at Olallie Lake. The first three drones came by from the east over the lake flying very quickly, I’d say 100 mph plus I heard them before I saw them, but they were still extremely silent, only caught them for glimpse. This was right about dawn, cause I just flown my own drone up to get some sunrise shots. I thought, that’s interesting, I am the only person up here in two of these campgrounds, maybe there’s someone over at the resort that is flying their FPV drones. Then about five minutes later two more came by from the same Easterly direction. That’s when I started to think this is really odd. So I pulled out my phone and was waiting to see if more came by, sure enough about five minutes later this group of about a dozen flew by over the lake from north to south at an altitude of about 3 to 400 AGL going so fast, nearly silent, that by the time I saw them, they were practically gone. I just barely managed to get this really ****** video. The odd part is their behavior when they’re flying together in that formation, just swarming all about each other, but still going forward extremely quickly.

Oregon doesn’t have any military bases, and to the east on the other side of the lake is 100 miles of Indian reservation. Absolutely no idea where these could’ve been coming from or going.

I know I was pretty much the only one there, because I arrived late, the evening before and drove through the campgrounds and there was no one there, I had my pick of the place. On the north end of the lake is a small resort with a couple cabins and a small campground, But it seemed virtually empty as well as there were no lights and no voices, which you can hear a conversation across the lake if there were.

So, what kind of drones fly like this has anyone seen something like this? I put up my own Mavic air 2s to try to emulate the flight path and at approximately the same height, in sport mode, mine probably only went about a quarter to a third of the speed and was exponentially louder, even louder than those 12 together.

Any thoughts?

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Looks more like a flock of birds from the behaviour in the fleeting couple of seconds where we actually saw something. Phones are really rubbish a taking this type of picture. You have no idea if they’ve focused and what on with no idea which lens theve decided to use.
 
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Not drones in my opinio
 
Not drones in my opinio
Yes it looked like a close flock of birds but the guy is a drone flyer and said he did hear the faint sound of drones each time those groups flew over his head. And they did seem to be flying too fast for birds. A drone flyer should be able to tell the flapping of wings in a flock, compared to a group of drones flying in a group, yet behaving like the movement of a flock of birds.

Unless of course, there was a reason to make the group of drones LOOK like, a flock of birds for the non-drone flying public, that may have looked up at them.
 
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Yes it looked like a close flock of birds but the guy is a drone flyer and said he did hear the faint sound of drones each time those groups flew over his head. And they did seem to be flying too fast for birds. A drone flyer should be able to tell the flapping of wings in a flock, compared to a group of drones flying in a group, yet behaving like the movement of a flock of birds.

Unless of course, there was a reason to make the group of drones LOOK like, a flock of birds for the non-drone flying public, that may have looked up at them.
Sorry, reposting, I used an inappropriate four letter word, I apologize.

No, absolutely not birds. The first group of two or three came whizzing by at about 100 or so feet AGL. I could clearly see that they were some sort of small quadcopter, but incredibly quiet, not silent, I just didn’t hear them coming until right over me. That’s why I thought at first maybe there was a few people on the north end of the lake flying their FPV drones but when that third group of nearly a dozen came by, that’s when I realized something else was going on here.

I’m a pretty basic drone enthusiast, I do have my own personal Mavic Air2S, but I do also fly professionally by day collecting Lidar and photogrammetry data using matrices 300 and 30t, Inspires, Autel Evo, Wingtra… so definitely not someone to confuse an aircraft for a bird.
 
Looks more like a flock of birds from the behaviour in the fleeting couple of seconds where we actually saw something. Phones are really rubbish a taking this type of picture. You have no idea if they’ve focused and what on with no idea which lens theve decided to use.
Yeah, phone vids are junk…. Wish I could have had a dslr on a tripod ready to hit fire on the shutter release, but this is all I got. I’m that guy now,I guess…. Wait for my Bigfoot video to drop! 😂

But, definitely not birds, the first two groups were very clearly drones and flying lower and in that same erratic manner, extremely quickly. I doubt we have birds out there now, like starlings or something mimicking drone noises. 🤷‍♀️
 
Here’s a small flock of waterfowl, same day, same location. I shot this with the intent to compare, they’re the only birds I saw that morning. These are much larger than those drones.

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Okay, I’m not a conspiracy theorist type person…. These are not UFOs, at least not in the extraterrestrial sense. I know they’re drones, I saw and heard them several times, they are not birds. Three different times within a span of about 15 minutes. I saw groups of multiple small drones flying together in this sort of hive/swarm formation, behaving rather erratically together.

Link: Weird drone behavior

I was camped in a very remote part of Oregon, up on the cascades mountains crest at Olallie Lake. The first three drones came by from the east over the lake flying very quickly, I’d say 100 mph plus I heard them before I saw them, but they were still extremely silent, only caught them for glimpse. This was right about dawn, cause I just flown my own drone up to get some sunrise shots. I thought, that’s interesting, I am the only person up here in two of these campgrounds, maybe there’s someone over at the resort that is flying their FPV drones. Then about five minutes later two more came by from the same Easterly direction. That’s when I started to think this is really odd. So I pulled out my phone and was waiting to see if more came by, sure enough about five minutes later this group of about a dozen flew by over the lake from north to south at an altitude of about 3 to 400 AGL going so fast, nearly silent, that by the time I saw them, they were practically gone. I just barely managed to get this really ****** video. The odd part is their behavior when they’re flying together in that formation, just swarming all about each other, but still going forward extremely quickly.

Oregon doesn’t have any military bases, and to the east on the other side of the lake is 100 miles of Indian reservation. Absolutely no idea where these could’ve been coming from or going.

I know I was pretty much the only one there, because I arrived late, the evening before and drove through the campgrounds and there was no one there, I had my pick of the place. On the north end of the lake is a small resort with a couple cabins and a small campground, But it seemed virtually empty as well as there were no lights and no voices, which you can hear a conversation across the lake if there were.

So, what kind of drones fly like this has anyone seen something like this? I put up my own Mavic air 2s to try to emulate the flight path and at approximately the same height, in sport mode, mine probably only went about a quarter to a third of the speed and was exponentially louder, even louder than those 12 together.

Any thoughts?

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I can’t tell from the video. But, are you sure they are not starlings?
 
These are not UFOs, at least not in the extraterrestrial sense. ... I saw groups of multiple small drones flying together in this sort of hive/swarm formation, behaving rather erratically together.
... The odd part is their behavior when they’re flying together in that formation, just swarming all about each other, but still going forward extremely quickly.

So, what kind of drones fly like this has anyone seen something like this?
Any thoughts?
Those are birds ... definitely 100% birds.
 
Those are birds ... definitely 100% birds.
Birds that whine like small drones? The exact same noise from the small quadcopter drones I saw a few minutes earlier at a lower altitude? Same noise, just a few hundred feet higher? I’m not an idiot, I’m not asking if they’re birds or not, I know the difference. I’m asking if anyone has seen drone behavior like this and what their purpose may be. Especially in the middle of BFE Oregon.

I ask because I don’t have much experience with UAS outside the survey grade remote sensing world.
 
I can’t tell from the video. But, are you sure they are not starlings?
I’ve never seen starlings in the high cascades before. My earlier starling comment was tongue in cheek, I know they mimic noises, but they have to spend ALOT of time around something to pick up on it. The odds are less than slim to none.
 
Birds that whine like small drones? The exact same noise from the small quadcopter drones I saw a few minutes earlier at a lower altitude? Same noise, just a few hundred feet higher? I’m not an idiot, I’m not asking if they’re birds or not, I know the difference. I’m asking if anyone has seen drone behavior like this and what their purpose may be. Especially in the middle of BFE Oregon.

I ask because I don’t have much experience with UAS outside the survey grade remote sensing world.
They are not drones.
They are birds and their purpose is to fly around doing bird stuff.
 
Likely military, Not being near a base wouldn't matter, isolated test in chosen terrain is ideal. I lived in Montana for 10 years and did aerial mapping in turbo prop. We had to wait out zone use by the military regularly and once had a B2 fly under us when we were At 3000 feet. Freaked out my pilot for the rest of the day ( I was aerial photograher)
 
To be drones, they'd have to be pretty good at flying to not hit each other or setting up for an air show.
I looked for a picture on my phone but I have a very similar image that I took over Portland. It didn't look like birds OR drones and it left me baffled.

I think it was a wormhole or a glitch in the Holodeck.
 
To be drones, they'd have to be pretty good at flying to not hit each other or setting up for an air show.
I looked for a picture on my phone but I have a very similar image that I took over Portland. It didn't look like birds OR drones and it left me baffled.

I think it was a wormhole or a glitch in the Holodeck.
That’s what I’m wondering, cause I know little outside of the remote sensing world. Is there tech and a purpose where these things are released en masse to perform a particular purpose? ai controlled, fly their mission, done… they’re swarming about cause they all have sensors for avoiding collision, but have a trajectory they’re set upon?

This was just bonkers to me cause it’s my first time seeing something outside the typical, singular operating consumer/commercial world of UAS/UAV…

I know there’s crazy stuff going on in Ukraine with drone warfare, and wars breed innovation…. Remarkably, I never thought to google “ai drone swarm” before posting, but here we are… maybe this has been in development for quite some time?

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Is there tech and a purpose where these things are released en masse to perform a particular purpose?
No, there isn't.
What purpose do you imagine those things could have been following where you saw them?

This was just bonkers to me cause it’s my first time seeing something outside the typical, singular operating consumer/commercial world of UAS/UAV…
What's bonkers is seeing a few birds, flying the way birds fly, in that environment and thinking ... those can't be birds, they must be some kind of drone, flying to carry out some kind of mission.
But there's no kind of mission for which anyone would be flying a group of drones (that look just like birds), in that environment.
I challenge you to come up with a scenario which makes any sense.

ps ... Whoever designed and made your drones was very cunning
Look closely and you'll note that your "drones" have flapping wings.

 
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Unfortunately, the video is not conclusive, even if enlarged. I have to vote with the bird group.

Birds.jpg
Despite the fuzziness of the picture, I don't see any arms with props, but several 'blobs' do appear to be extended wings.
 
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