DRONE STORIES - THE BIRDS

Today something really odd happened during a drone flight around the Westfront Memorial site in Nieuwpoort. The memorial site is located at the border of the controlled airspace of Ostend airport, and quite close to a military base. It's also in the middle of a helicopter training area and extended airspace of Koksijde. Therefore it's often restricted to fly there.

Today the circumstances were favorable and thus I flew my drone. Or at least tried..! Since a bird tried to attack my drone.

It is not the first time that a bird tried to attack my drone. A few weeks ago in Westende, at a construction site, some seagulls were quite interested in my drone and tried to play with it. I had to descend and wait for a few minutes.

Today an Oystercatcher [Scholekster] was screaming and tried to attack my drone. I doubt if there was a bird nest close by, but landed my drone anyway and tried to fly about 100 meters further away. I directly flew to a height of about 80 meters for safety. I thought the problem was solved until the Oystercatcher came back after a few minutes, he tried to attack my drone at a height of 80 meters. Since he flew so fast, the only thing I could do was a maneuver sideways, while descending.

Even though the drone was still about fifty meters away, the bird must have known I controlled the drone and attacked me with bird poop. It fell straight on my phone and controller! Luckily I had some tissues, so I could clean my phone and take a picture.

Do you think the bird was protecting his nest, or do you think he was protecting the memorial site? Birds are really smart!

Have you had any similar experiences with birds? Let me know!




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