3,000 eggs abandoned after drone scares birds in California
Some 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a Southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. -- Some 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a Southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds, a newspaper reported Friday.
Two drones were flown illegally over the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach in May and one of them went down in the wetlands, The Orange County Register said.
Fearing an attack from a predator, several thousand terns abandoned their ground nests, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Now, during the month when the white birds would be overseeing their eggs as they begin to hatch, the sand is littered with egg shells.
It's one of the largest-scale abandonment of eggs ever at the coastal site about 100 miles (160 km) north of San Diego, according to reserve manager Melissa Loebl.
