A friend tipped me off to a breeding pair of Osprey, knowing I could be trusted to not reveal the location. I got great photos of them collecting nesting materials from nearby trees. But… I had never seen an Osprey nest before, and I wanted to. But only if I could do it without disturbing the birds.
I had already spoken to the owner of the property and had permission to be there. So. How to do this? I determined that there are two ways to view the top of a silo.
- Climb the ladder with lots of camera gear, and if you make it explain to the nice birds of prey why they should not attack you.
- Send up the drone.
I chose to send up the drone. Taking off from the next field I scouted the scene. Both birds were in the nest. There were no eggs. Slowly moving the drone closer, I made sure to approach from the front. I wanted these parents to be to know the drone was there. No surprises. Apart from scaring them, I didn’t want their territorial instincts to kick in and make them attack the drone. Stopping at a very safe distance, I waited for reactions. There were none. The Ospreys barely even glanced at the flying camera. The drone was not even a blip on their threat radar.
I began a slow circle around the silo. And this is the video.
The original footage was in 4K60. Because of the distance, I zoomed in to 200% at the cost of a little loss of sharpness, and dropped to HD30 to get a slow motion effect. The resulting crop makes the drone look far closer than it actually is. As evidenced by the complete lack of concern. The Ospreys take no notice at all, a sure sign that I was far enough away. But it still looks great. Don’t you think?