The Boss said there were quite a few on display at the Seymour Expo — some big ones that farmers can use for spraying crops, some medium-sized ones loaded with infra-red cameras that map those parts of a crop stressed from lack of water, or nutrients; and now a smaller one designed to scare off birds.
The last one must have provoked The Boss’s interest because he came home talking about it. The cockatoos drive him nuts when they start pruning all the garden trees, not to mention when they hop into the seeds of his newly-planted crop, so a clever way to send them packing would naturally cheer him up.
There is no shortage of cockies along my river.
The Boss watched Luke Weekley from Falcon UAV demonstrating his drone on the back oval at Seymour, where it quickly evacuated all the birds in the vicinity.
This handy little drone takes off by itself and flies randomly over an orchard, vineyard or rice crop within a pre-programmed area, emitting a cry like a peregrine falcon.
It’s designed to take off when flocks of crop-eating birds are around and put the wind up them. It doesn’t need a pilot once it is set up: it lives in its own docking station, along with a weather sensor, so it won’t fly if it’s too windy or raining. And it charges its own batteries up when it sits back in its dock.
The Falcon drone flies around a crop — apparently randomly, but broadly covering a grid pattern. It includes waypoints along its path, which can be programmed and changed, where the drone changes its behaviour.
Say there’s some tall trees on the edge of a crop where raptors like kites, eagles or falcons commonly perch to get a view. This is a spot the ducks, parrots, galahs and cockies will be watching carefully.
The Falcon drone will pause there and start behaving like a falcon does, emitting a peregrine call in a variety of frequencies so they carry well across the crop.
Luke says they have been trialling the Falcon drone on vineyards, olive groves and walnut plantings with great success. And they have been particularly pleased how the drone can fool cockatoos, which are the smartest of the birds, often sending out advance parties to scout a crop before the main mob follows.
The Falcon drone hasn’t been commercially released yet but Luke says interested farmers are welcome to register with the company. I’m waiting for The Boss to get me one. Woof!
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