What started out as what would normally be a standard flight for a photo, turned into an adventure with interesting results. Having lost one UAV two years ago within a mile of this location to a bald eagle attack in flight, my guard is always up for the big birds. As Huron & Eastern train 702 approaches Dutch Creek, south of Bay City, MI, I sent the UAV up and out to get a shot. I was about 40 feet AGL and had gotten into position with about 2 min to spare. As I fine tuned my angle, something caught my eye and a black flash obscured the screen. I looked up and holy explorative, an eagle had arrived and was making a circle back. I quickly took to a higher elevation to gain some maneuverability. At the same time the train was rolling into the low Trestle and a second eagle was sailing into my viewfinder! I quickly snapped a shot as I tried to out maneuver those anti-UAV bald eagles. I landed a shot of a lifetime, hurriedly and nearly accidentally as I was exiting. I did get some nice regular camera pics of one of the birds following my P4P back to me. A change of drawers required, but it appears that the second eagle photobombed my 6-Unit, 3-railroad image. MQT 3390/3391, HESR 3485, 2028, and ISRR 3044/3045 lead the 702 train from Bay City to Durand, MI. The UAV survived this day...but thoughts of one of my older P4s at the bottom of the Saginaw River rang loudly in my head.
