Eleven of seventeen monitored golden eagle nest sites recorded at least one drone overflight during this year’s breeding season, and two nests subsequently failed.
Deliberately disturbing a nesting golden eagle is a criminal offence. So, in practice, is most of what was recorded, though establishing who was operating a drone that has since left is difficult in country where the nearest road is an hour away.
Why a drone is different
Eagles tolerate walkers below them, because a human on a hillside is a known quantity approaching from beneath, which is not where danger comes from for a bird that nests on a cliff.
A drone approaches at eye level or above, holds position, and makes a noise nothing else makes. To an incubating bird the appropriate response is to leave the nest and see it off, which means eggs cooling, and repeated incidents mean eggs cooling repeatedly.
“Nobody flying one of these is trying to harm an eagle. They want the shot. The bird cannot tell the difference between somebody who wants the shot and something that wants the chick.”
A raptor study group member
The third incident
At one site the female left the nest, climbed above the drone and struck it.
The drone came down on scree approximately 400 metres below and was recovered by the monitoring team in several pieces. The bird returned to the nest within the hour and the chick fledged successfully in July.
No operator has come forward to claim the equipment.
The season
- Sites monitored: 17
- Sites overflown at least once: 11
- Nest failures following repeated overflight: 2
- Drones lost to the resident birds: 1
- Legal position: disturbance at a nest is a criminal offence
- Prosecutions arising: 0
The study group’s request is simple and applies well beyond eagles: do not fly a drone at a cliff between March and August, and if a large bird is coming towards it, the bird is not curious.
