Networx3 UAV have been helping to protect England’s wildlife on a multi-million-pound highways upgrade.
The company were called in to urgently inspect a 40ft tree close to the A45/A6 Chowns Mill junction which is a historic bottleneck in Northamptonshire.
Because of concerns about nesting birds and resident bats Networx3 UAV were asked to conduct a drone survey to check for wildlife.
Networx3 founder and managing director Ian Ashworth and commercial director Caroline Earnshaw are two of the company’s five qualified commercial drone pilots.
They choose the DJI Matrice 210 V2 RTK drone from their fleet of five to use on the job because it has a zoom function so powerful that it can pick up a crystal clear image of a dead fly on a car windscreen from 400ft up in the air.
Caroline said: “We were able to see nesting crows but thanks to the powerful zoom we were able to see directly inside the nest to confirm that it was still active, without disturbing the birds.
“Considering that we were flying our drone in the middle of a construction site, in the middle of a highway, it was a very straightforward job.
“The photographs and video that the drone took allowed our client to confirm 100% that nesting birds were using the tree and as a result the tree was left undisturbed.
“We were called about the job on a Friday before a bank holiday weekend and on site in Northamptonshire the following Tuesday. That’s the kind of rapid service we like to provide to clients.”
The Networx3 UAV team will be returning to the site at the end of the month to survey for bats in the same tree.
