Date: 7/3/26 9:18 am From: Richard <rlgarrigus1962...> Subject: [Maine-birds] Drones
I was birding Basket Island causeway last evening and noticed a significantly diminished presence of birds which I initially attributed to the ebb and flow of such things and didn’t pay it much mind. Then I was puzzled by a sudden flush of the birds that were roosting on the main sandbar that lifted off for no apparent reason. I wasn’t close enough to even register to them, there were a couple dogs running but also distant, no BAEA coursing through. So I went about my walk and then heard the cause—the high-pitched whirr of a drone. These things automatically set me off regardless but when they’re in areas where birds are stressed by them, forget it. So I locked on to the drone in the bins and watched and watched and watched, a very tedious exercise, until it paid off by seeing it come in for a landing at a house fronting Hills Beach. So I went and paid a visit. There was a couple sitting on the deck. I asked them if they were flying the drone. It was their son. I requested they keep the drone away from the beach, that it stresses the birds and there are at least three nesting sites for rare birds currently that have recently hatched young. They asked if there was a height limitation above which they are allowed to fly it. I responded that any height is a disturbance and walked away. Knowing full well I don’t know the first thing about the legalities of drones in questionable places.
Does anyone have any insight on this? Or know where I might get information. I would like to come to it with more than just my utter contempt for these things.
