My new look Mini 2

Hopefully this will keep the pesky Seagulls away when I go to the coast .
Probably not though.

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Definitely won’t :smiley: Seagulls are incredibly territorial. I work in Chelmsford, Essex very near the river Chelmer and we have a squadron of massive mutant seagulls that terrorise and attack the local pigeon population (no bad thing, they’re vermin after all)

I flew my Mini 2 above my work last week and came very close to losing it twice due to these militant urban Albatross attacking it mid flight. On coasts and tidal rivers the Seagull is king and afraid of nothing. Even the four local Blackbirds on our site keep a wide birth and don’t push their luck.

Good luck!

Looks great! Made me smile.

Wow I will keep my eyes out for gulls!

Have the same problem here in Blackpool (not I suppose, unsurprisingly). The local herring gulls play close attention to my DJI Mini 2 whenever I fly it from my back garden. I’m sure the local gull population has increased substantially during this pandemic.

Lost my Sparky to a sea gull. I was being too artistic and trying to take a cinematic shot by flying backward and slowly going up. There was a large(ish) fishing boat on the river and as I flew close to it, there was a gull on the other side which flew up and knocked the Spark out of the sky. Gull 1 - Spark 0.

I have a worry about the the Red Kites that are often near where I fly.
They are usually higher than I tend to fly but I am not sure if the Mini 2 with a head start could outrun one as they are known for being pretty fast swooping and aerobatic.

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Likewise, Kev. My very first flight a couple of weeks ago:

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I’ve not had a problem with Red Kites which are frequent visitors at my club site. Rather they’ll fly alongside me when I’m flying a sail/thermal glider. I really should invest in a 360 degree camera as I’m sure the pictures could be quite good.

Gulls on the other hand?? These are the avian equivalent of NED’s and CHAV’s.

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I’ve flown slope gliders over the sea wall here loads of times, there’s thousands of gulls about and I’ve been absolutely mobbed by them but I don’t remember them ever actually doing anything other than checking it out and making a racket to call even more of them over. It’s quite a sight flying up and down the wall followed by about fifty of them. They’re generally just intelligent and inquisitive birds, rowdy for sure but their absolute mastery of flight is really something else, amazing creatures!

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Just wonder if bright light(s) on front of UAV might deter them as it appears to often work with large aircraft on final approach scaring birds off the runway…they tend to regard if as a predator (so it has been claimed)…

Wow! Great pic. Never been that close.
I have trouble judging the height of them compared to my Mini 2.
Mind you I can lose sight of it 60m or above. The Flytron strobe does help though.
Is there a badge for flying with the birds?

Thanks. The shot was purely by chance - the bird can’t have been close for more than a few seconds and I didn’t realise it was in the video until I downloaded the files. Mind you I live in the Chilterns - Red Kite Central - so the kites are pretty much everywhere all of the time.
Good to hear the strobe helps. I’m expecting mine any day.