Martha Stewart might be crazy about drones, but I’ll tell you who isn’t: This badass hawk.
Upon seeing a quadcopter flying through the sky, the monstrous bird launched a direct attack mid-flight and basically took the machine down with one fell swoop. There’s a certain sadness in the way the drone careens and falls to the ground with a loud thud. It kind of reminds me of the Greek story of Icarus, who out of pure hubris and pride, flew too close to the sun with his wax wings. He, too, met a similarly tragic fate.
Lesson to be had? Don’t mess with nature, man.
Below, Christopher Schmidt, the man behind the drone, offers up a short description of the incident:
On Oct 8th, I was flying my quadcopter at Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge, when a hawk decided he wasn’t too happy with my invasion of his airspace…
As far as I could tell, the juvenile red-tailed hawk came out unscathed, and having defeated his prey, was happy to retreat. (As soon as he flew at me, I throttled down the props to try to minimize any harm to the bird.) The quadcopter came out unscathed as well. Funds generated through YouTube ads will be donated to the Massachusetts Audubon Society.