Hawk close-up

[Wghayek]

Cooper Hawk

 

[Inspirephil]

Cooper Hawk

I’ve been attacked by Ospreys when I got too close to them so I’d be careful if I were you.

 

[Wghayek]

Yes I keep my distance and zoom in. Thanks!

 

[GLEvideo]

My EVO 1 was just viciously attacked by a large Swanson's Hawk a few weeks ago. I was needing to take just a few photos looking down on my property to document how many cars were parked for a large event we hosted. The hawks have nested in our trees year after year and this was right near the time the young hawks were still in the nest. The adult hawks were not pleased with the drone flying nearby and one of them was screaming loudly as he chased after the EVO and grabbed it with his large talons. He soon let go of it and it tumbled end over end from about 100 feet up and I watched in horror knowing that I was about to see drone parts scatter after impact. Miraculously the drone regained upright attitude just about 10 feet above the ground and fell stable from that point while the motors revved up like I've never heard them do before. The drone slowed it's fall quite a bit but not completely and it hit the ground flat and bounced back up into the air with the motors still running full blast. I was amazed to see it climbing back up so fast but then I tried my best to make it stop climbing and struggled to get it to land. I didn't want it to go back up as the hawk was still there screaming at it and flying circles looking for another attack opportunity. Eventually I was able to land the drone. After inspection it appears to be fine. No damage detected. But this is a testament to the incredible flight controller inside this machine that facilitated it regaining control from this incredible tumble and certain destruction.