Question: Can drones be used to protect nesting Curlews?

It was a curious question but one that immediately peaked our interest.

How can a Video Production Company help a conservation project?

We are lucky to live and work in a beautiful part of North Yorkshire and are keen to do all we can to preserve that. So when we were asked for help by a friend who runs the Hartwith Curlew Project in Nidderdale, which aims to protect nesting Curlews, it was an easy yes. But how could a Video Production Company help to protect nesting Curlews? Well, they needed drone experience and we have that in spades.

So we could help…AND we could make a film about it.

As we’re interested in conservation AND technology, it turned out to be a genuinely fascinating project. It also has turned into this lovely little film. Give it a watch to see how we got on. It turns out it’s much harder than you might first think!

Thank you Coptrz!

We’ve got lots of drones! Some would say too many. But like bikes, you always need one more and none of ours have the thermal imaging capabilities needed for this project. So a huge thank you to Matt Priestley at Coptrz for supporting this trial by lending us the DJI Matrice 4T. We couldn’t have done it without their support.

No animals were harmed…

A crucial element of this project was ensuring the drone did not disturb the Curlews. We are only too aware that Gulls can occasionally become very defensive/aggressive around drones so wanted to ensure our activity would not disturbing the Curlews. Not only was the drone we used the quietest possible, we also moved in slowly while observing the Curlew’s reaction and they appeared entirely unaffected by the drone.