Are you on dial up still ?
lol no - and actually the last few uploaded in not bad time, but I don’t always want to upload in 4K. I am at around 60 MG/Sec and that kind of suffices for now.
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Sorry I’ve got to say it. So you deliberately buzzed a Seagull to get it moving so you could chase it. Then what happens. . .The kids playing football go home and tell Mum/ Dad that there was someone up the park chasing birds with a drone, Mum / Dad tells their mates at tne local wildlife meet about it and yet another ‘Legend’ is born about how terrible drone flyers are ’ Harassing’ local wildlife and how they should be banned.
Sorry I know its only a Seagull so some would say " fair game" but in MHO it’s this type of thing that gets passed around, blown out of all proportion and gives ammunition to those wanting to ban/ restrict drone flying.
As it was, there was hardly anyone in the park, and certainly nobody watching me astute enough to have even noticed. I didn’t buzz it, I flew near it, it took off and the rest is history really. Even the sharpest eyed person would struggle to see a drone and a seagull moving around in relative distant proximity in such an empty space.
And yet in your own words above, posted on a public forum about drones, which I’m almost positive will be perused by those looking for any excuse to ’ bash ’ drone owners and pilots, and with your own video evidence.
Ok maybe it’s just me who sees this as potential fuel to feed the fire of those looking for reasons to restrict drone flying ? It just seams…irresponsible to me 
I’m no fan of seagulls, but even I think they should be left alone; if they’re not bothering you, I don’t think you should be bothering or ‘riling’ them. And, as I know to my cost, if they take umbrage at the presence of your whirlywhizz in their bit of sky, they will attack!
Ok so i feel i should dip my bread in here being as im guilty of chasing/removing what is known on the farm as vermin
On one place i go there is a family of buzzards fucking massive the daddy must have a 2 meter wing span and mummy about 1.5 youngun last time i seen it around 0.5 they like the swifts in the barns theres plenty of them to chose from
However back on topic in my experience with raptors i think it depends a lot on the drone you use at the time for example a mini just sat there hovering is like a rival hunting to the bird and will knock it out the sky if it wanted to but i will add it may injure the bird at this point and dont think its a good idea to keep the drone in the air unless you have seen the bird and stay above it and dont bother it by chasing it around
if it has taken a liking to the drone send it up behind the bird if possible and move yourself toward the drone to land quickly and watch the bird and enjoy watching it work
FPV drones are a different kettle of fish there loud and scream so they will come and look from above if they see it dive again they think its a rival hunting and have been known to have a go but again same advice as above i wouldn’t want the bird injured
Crows Ravens and Rooks have started to also take interest at the stable where I’m trying to nutmeg the missis horse with the neo he’s cool and doesn’t seemed bothered by it but I’m not just going to send it but i have thought about follow me on him 
BIG drones like the matrice etc if its bigger then them they tend to fly off and watch from a distance i recall at the big meet when a raptor took an interest and as it clocked an inspire head towards it backed off after two attempts and i will add this was done responsibly and got around 20 meters near the bird and a yaw turn or two was enough to move him away from making a mistake
Birds of pray i leave alone
Coastal birds are wankers
The counrtyside carnivores are starting to attack
Pigeons urban or woodys are mostly in packs and fly up from the ground into the drone if not careful
Take a spotter and fly responsibly
Never had a problem with them in Morecambe.
Now gulls on the other hand will appear out of no where. One flight i had a couple of years ago, in the video you could see the gull honing in from 1/2 a mile away.
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The lot on the Solent are a nasty bunch… I certainly won’t underestimate them. But oddly I don’t have a big issue with gulls.
Good sense there BulletDodger.
Apart from that one incident, I have had no bother with birds; they seem to ignore my drone and go about whatever their birdy business is, quite close sometimes but they fly past and take no notice. I have yet to fly through the next six months or so, though; nesting season!
First there is the breeding, which brings out the territorial tendencies of male birds. This raises the possibility that a drone could be mistaken for a rival male, and the bird will want to see it off.
Then there is the nesting. I would imagine that, to a ground-nester like a skylark a hovering drone looks not unlike a kestrel. This might not be obvious to the pilot, because the bird’s response will be to distract the ‘kestrel’ by moving away from the nest and limping or faking an injury to make itself a target; when the bird attacks it hides. No obvious affect on a drone pilot’s day out, but continued and repeated flying could easily disrupt the incubation of eggs and the intense feeding of chicks, which could lead to a breeding failure. Might be a good idea to avoid some SSSIs…
Birds that indulge in mobbing behaviour to deal with threats are an obvious hazard; seagulls and oystercatchers do this and are known to mob-attack drones, but the behaviour might be found in pigeons (saw a whole wood-full of them mob a red kite in Aberystwyth once, hell of a noise but they saw it off successfully), crows, rooks, starlings.
My view is that the birds were using the sky for millions of years before we came along, and have grandfather rights. They need to be kept an eye out for and kept out of the way of. I can’t see any point in deliberately antagonising or bothering them. If you want to video them in flight, use a zoom and stay as far off as you can.
Which will be challenging. Just keeping the bird in frame and in focus will be difficult, and if it’s aware of you and trying to get away from you you’ll have no chance. The guys filming for Attenborough have better kit than you and a lot more experience; you won’t be able to do that stuff easily!!!
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“the daddy must have a 2 meter wing span and mummy about 1.5”
You’ll most likely find that it’s the other way about mate. Female buzzards are usualy bigger and more aggressive than the males. Just like the women in Glasgow and Newcastle 
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There are many variety of gulls in the UK, but there’s no such thing as a “seagull”.
I’m not trying to be the drone police… I be rely interested to know your chain of thought on this…
Do you think harassing wild life for fun or practice is acceptable?
This is a hobby that is constantly berated for unacceptable practice.
Posting the likes on a public forum, … what is it that you are trying to achieve?? or is it just for the LOLs
Me granny had a saying. “don’t poke the angry bear even while it sleeps.”
I was flying in the park the gull was on the ground, I flew over it (but still at some distance) and it ended up flying off (it may not have done). As it did I filmed it and all from a distance as can be seen in the video. The chain of events are actually extremely boring, it just so happened that things went in my favour and the gull flew. My filming was all at a distance as can be seen.
Its not like I interfered with it, or provoked it. Had it have stayed on the ground I wouldn’t have stated to shout at it / slice its wings with the rotors. It was just a sequence of events that worked out for me in my effort to film a moving target.
As for peoples opinions and ignorance of drone laws, that will never change, so is not relevant to this video. People need to educate themselves on what is and is not allowed before commenting on peoples activities and this is evidenced by the post over the weekend on FB regarding the roundabout being filmed in Basingstoke.
I’ve taken it down now, so that nobody else can be offended that I flew near to and filmed a seagull.
Define harrassment. I would not be bothered much if I did something with the drone that made a bird move off or take flight; they do this all the time and don’t seem to worry much about it. But if you are deliberately provoking the bird and preventing it from going about it’s normal business, that begins to sound like harrassment, and if it affects the egg-incubation or chick-feeding it is definitely harrassement. And you don’t have to be close to the bird to cause it, because a drone hovering a couple hundred feet up looks like a raptor trying to get you off your nest to have a go at the eggs or chicks from the bird’s pov.
Birds can’t talk to us directly, so we have to interpret them by their actions and noises and it’s not always obvious. A gull (I’m enough of a twitcher to know that there is no such thing as a seagull but there are several species of gulls, I use the term seagull here because this is not a twitcher forum) will display obvious annoyance and squawk loudly at you if you upset it, but not all the time, there are shades of grey to be taken account of.
I would not ever deliberately bother a bird with my drone; having lost one to gulls I am quite aware of their presence. Same goes for animals in general. If I am aware that I am causing them concern accidentally, I will usuall fly upwards and then somewhere else. You don’t have to be in the air to cause them grief; geese, for example, can be quite territorial and intimidating on the ground!
Not saying that what you are doing is wrong, Pirbright, you are a grown up and can make your own informed assessment of situations, just that, personally, I would not attempt to film a bird, either in flight or on the ground, and certainly not on a nest, because by and large that works for me; I would not assume to prescribe what works for you! They appear in my videos incidentally of course, which is different. I prefer it when they ignore my drone, which they largely do, and I return the favour.
I’d suggest downloading a bird guide app which will outline their behaviours and requirements, and in what situations you are likely to encounter them, though none of these TTBOMK are written with droners in mind. ‘British Birds’ app for your phone by iSpiny is a good one; gives descriptions, habitats, nesting times, a little about behaviours. Some are territorial especially in breeding season, and best avoided.
Your above potentially can go into the realm of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981.
I think it is sensible advice for urban areas as well, commercial, industrial, residential, parks; all are bird habitats. Pigeons used to nest on rock faces and cliffs, but have adapted to our buildings as a substiture. Sparrows, robins, starlings, wagtails, many more are common in towns and cities, and rivers, park lakes, docks or harbours are the habitats of ducks, coots, moorhens, swans and many more. Birds love industry, especially derelict heavy industry…
General rule for Johnsters; leave 'em all alone and Don’t Be A Dick (DBAD)
Please Lord no more abbreviations, especially on our homage to the drone code
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I’m not commenting on the rights or wrongs, but just remember that some gull species have extra protection, rather than the general wildlife protection act. Some are on the red list as they are in serious decline. Just be careful otherwise you could end up in a spot of bother.
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Unusual, that and I see the moderator has explained why further in the thread. I have posted many topics in GADC, had loads merged into existing threads, countless corrected due to my incompetence, but never have had one refused/delete.
In this respect, I think GADC is brilliant and far from discouraging.
I’ve had many DMs responded to in hours of posting, sometimes minutes, and have to say have made great friends in the process.
Keep posting, and you’ll get what I mean. 
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