Lake Michigan, the second largest of the American Great Lakes in volume, is home to a wide range of wildlife. Being naturally low in algae production, the waters provide a clean drinking source and habitat. Over-fishing, urban development, and environmental changes, and the introduction of invasive species caused a decline in the animals that once populated the lake. However, as part of a conscious effort to restore Lake Michigan to what it once was, there has been an increase in wildlife rehabilitation of the lake. This is particularly apparent in the lake’s eagle population.

At one time, Lake Michigan was a favorite nesting ground for the American Bald Eagle. The tall trees, open clean water, and abundant fish meant that Lake Michigan was an ideal home for eagles. Sadly, by the 1970’s there were approximately 75 active Bald Eagle nests around the lake, a trend that was effecting the species across the country. In 1978, the Bald Eagle, the national bird of the United States of America, was ranked endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Through intense conservation efforts, the Bald Eagle was removed from the list by 2007 after making a remarkable comeback. Now there are at least 9,800 known active Bald Eagle nesting sites in North America, about 850 of these nests in Michigan alone.

With large numbers of eagles inhabiting the shores of Lake Michigan, it was only a matter of time before one of these majestic sea birds had an encounter with modern technology being used to survey the lakes. On July 21, 2020, environmental quality analyst and drone pilot Hunter King from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, abbreviated as EGLE of all terms, had an encounter with one of the Bald Eagles of Lake Michigan. King was on a routine mission to map the shorelines of the lake near Escanaba in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. EGLE has been mapping the shorelines in response to erosion that is causing excessive high water levels, leading to floods in the surrounding communities.

On King’s fourth field day with the drone along the lake, he noticed that the drone’s satellite reception was not clear. About 7 minutes into the flight, King pressed the return home button on the drone’s controller. Following the command, the drone turned and began to return to base while King monitored it from the controller’s video screen. However, moments later the drone began to spin harshly, “It was like a really bad rollercoaster ride,” said King. As soon as King looked up from the screen the drone was gone and an eagle was soaring away. A couple who had been nearby bird watching saw the Bald Eagle attack what they assumed was a seagull, and then fly off. When the couple approached King they were shocked to hear it was a drone that the eagle had attacked. With the assistance of the couple, King began to look for his missing drone, but after a few hours, it was time to give up. Thankfully both King and the couple said that the eagle appeared to fly off almost victoriously and unharmed.

The drone King was flying was a DJI Phantom 4 Pro Advanced which had cost EGLE $950. Weighing just over 3 lbs and measuring around 13 inches, the Phantom 4 Pro is a swift and easy to use off the shelf drone. It has become a favorite for drone operators because of its durability, effectiveness, and low cost. But when compared to a predatory bird weighing close to 15 lbs with a 6-8 ft wingspan, and 2 inch talons that can exert up to 1,000 lbs of pressure per square inch, the little drone never stood a chance. Several days after the attack EGLE Unmanned Aircraft Systems coordinator Arthur Ostaszewski ventured back out to the lake to try and retrieve the drone.

Using telemetric data from the flight, Ostaszewski was able to better locate the portion of the lake the drone went down in. The data led Ostaszewski to take a kayak about 150ft out from shore in water that was roughly 4 ft deep. The water was too dark and murky for him to spot the drone, so Ostaszewski climbed out of his kayak and marched through the muddy water in a grid pattern to find the drone “like I was playing Battleship and wanted to cover the entire board,” he said. As a storm began to roll in it was time to abandon the search. As the Phantom 4 Pro Advanced is no longer in production, EGLE will be replacing it with a newer model to recommence their surveying and mapping objectives.

Though the drone was never found, EGLE was able to recover information from its final moments from stored data. The incident occurred at exactly 7:39 minutes into the flight at an elevation of 162 ft above the lake. The drone was four-tenths of a mile away from King flying at 22 mph. When the eagle grabbed the drone its speed instantly dropped to 10 mph, within a half-second later the drone began to spiral down to the water at 20 mph. Before crashing, the drone sent 27 warning notifications in 3.5 seconds, one of which was a notice that a propeller had been torn off.

Bald Eagles are territorial birds of prey. The drone could have been seen as food, or a threat to the eagle. Or, as EGLE joked, maybe the bird didn’t appreciate EGLE’s liberal misspelling of its name. EGLE is clearly not dismayed by the encounter and they will continue to use drones. They said they will be looking into technology that will deter further attacks or stress on wildlife, like “skins” to alter the appearance of the drone so it won’t be mistaken as prey. All in all, EGLE has taken this incident in stride and even continued by jokingly reaching out to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources about giving the rouge eagle a citation. The department responded in kind saying, “Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do. Nature is a cruel and unforgiving mistress.”

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