From WMTW

Close Encounter: Owl grounds Camden Fire Department drone

Camden Fire officials are sharing video of a close encounter between a department drone and an owl from a recent nighttime mission.

CFD says pilots aborted a mission Friday night after observing a barred owl following their DJI M30T drone.

“Owls frequently attack drones, perceiving them as territorial threats, predators, or prey, often resulting in damaged or downed aircraft,” CFD wrote on Facebook.

According to the post, CFD has Special Activity Permits to fly at the Camden Snow Bowl and the Camden Hills State park as both areas are No Fly Zones.

  • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
    2·
    2 months ago

    It was nice they grounded it until the owl lost interest. I don’t know how powerful a drone motor is, but I wouldn’t want it to get nicked up toes or anything. Good on the fire dept!

    I’ve passed through their town and always remember it for being very lovely.

    I just checked, and it wasn’t Camden, but their neighboring town, Rockport, where I stopped to see the memorial to Andre the Seal.

    From Roadside America:

    Andre was a harbor seal who spent his winters at the New England Aquarium in Boston and his summers in Rockport Harbor. Every spring for over 20 years the Seaquarium would release him and Andre would swim north to Rockport (150+ miles). It was always a high point for local residents when he reappeared. He was the honorary harbor master.

    A granite statue of Andre was dedicated at harborside in 1978; Andre unveiled it himself. He went blind in 1985, and when he swam away in 1986, he never returned. Searchers found his body washed up on a remote part of Rockport beach. At the time, he was thought to be the oldest living harbor seal.

    Andre will never have a successor, said the Rockport Chamber of Commerce, because “the Department of Environmental Protection will never allow it.”

    Andre was the subject of a lackluster 1994 feature film starring Tina Majorino (who later played the girlfriend of Napoleon Dynamite) and a sea lion instead of a seal.