Shewring and colleagues recently tested the suitability of thermal cameras mounted on drones to detect nightjar nest sites as an alternative survey method. A drone-mounted camera can survey an area faster than a team of ground observers, potentially without disturbing the birds or their nests. Thermal-sensing cameras can find birds and other warm-bodied animals hidden within vegetation, even in the dark.
Shewring presented the preliminary findings of their pilot tests last month at the British Ecological Society’s annual conference.
The scientists took a series of thermal images by flying the drones over a tree plantation in Wales in areas where nightjar nests had been previously identified by radio tracking and direct observation.
Remote Monitored Systems plc (LON:RMS) is focused on the continued development of the Company’s ‘Survey & Inspection’ business. RMS’s Geocurve subsidiary is a specialist surveying business which combines traditional survey techniques with innovative technologies including UAS/UAV, GIS databases, 3D modelling, laser and Lidar scanning and hydrographic modelling.
