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Hawk attacks photographer’s drone

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While some people are not particularly comfortable with drones flying overhead, apparently hawks are not either. Wolf Paulus, who likes to shoot bird’s-eye views of the San Vicente Road Project using one of his two quadcopters, sent his larger one on a test run from his driveway one evening after making some adjustments to its camera settings.

“Towards the end of the test flight, a hawk came out of one of the taller trees and briefly attacked the quadcopter, just enough to totally disturb its balance,” said Paulus, a photographer and San Diego Country Estates resident.

The copter crashed on the patio of a distant neighbor’s house, he said, and fortunately the neighbor’s property was not damaged.

“Thankfully, no one got hurt and nothing but the copter suffered damage. Still, not a good thing,” said Paulus.

He has heard stories of hawks attacking drones.

“I think they’re just protective of their territory,” he said.

The photographer, who uses a small copter that measures about 10 inches by 10 inches for photos and the larger one that is about 30 inches by 30 inches for stabilized videos, said he understands people’s concerns about drones flying over their houses. Therefore, he said, he usually flies them from the edges of the Estates.

It took a lot of work and dollars to repair Icarus, the large copter, he said. His latest photos and video of the road project may be viewed at:

www.ramonaphoto.-

com/san-vicente-

road-improvement-

project-pt-2.

The construction contract for the San Vicente Road Project is approaching 75 percent completion, according to Michael Long, the county’s project manager. Barring any significant weather delays, Long said they still anticipate the project to be finished in spring 2016.

“Paving has been completed at the Warnock intersection and south to Gem Lane with some road edge work to still be completed in these areas,” Long said. “From Gem Lane to Bunnie King, traffic will remain shifted to the east to allow for the completion of some utility joint trench construction operations. The paving to full width from Gem Lane to Bunnie King is expected after the holidays in the first couple of months of the new calendar year.”

The holidays should not have any impact on the roadwork, he said.

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