We have spoken in the past about hobbyist drones, both in terms of what they offer as a new means of photographic creativity and what they mean for the future. As Amazon thinks about drone delivery, they might well be advised to recall the old television ads for Chiffon Margarine – “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”

Drone photography enthusiast Christopher Schmidt took his quadcopter drone to Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge, MA  to photograph the Boston skyline this past week.  As it turns out he was violating the airspace of a hawk that did not hesitate to claim its territorial rights as raptors have done for at least 100 million years.  Schmidt caught the whole, albeit brief, dogfight on drone-cam.  The hawk attacked and Schmidt mindful of not hurting the bird immediately shut down the propellers.  Propellers being required for lift and flight, the quadcopter plummeted to Earth landing unceremoniously upside down as the camera documents.  It is perhaps a harbinger of things to come.

I can see the future of package tracking:

Tuesday 7:30 pm order received.

Tuesday 8:00 pm left service center, Louisville, KY.

Wednesday 1:05 am en route.

Wednesday 1:45 am attacked by hawk, whereabouts thereabouts.