This week, I was lucky enough to have Denis Stretton, an experienced drone pilot, visit my patch! I met Denis when down at Stow Maries and had spoken about doing some aerial photography of my garden. This week, Denis was able to visit and, with the gorgeous weather, we were keen to see what we could achieve. The drone Denis was using was a Phantom Professional. Armed with an HD cam, this manoeuvrable little drone has an HD camera and an iPad app, so Denis can view what the drone is seeing, as well as making adjustments.
We spent several hours flying the drone around the garden and up above the house, and I have lots of footage to edit… which will take me a little time. I have lifted some stills as a flavour of what we captured…
My aim was to see what the wildlife sees… what is a buzzard’s eye view of my house like? How do the birds view my garden as they fly through it? How does my garden fit into the surrounding landscape?
This footage certainly answered all my questions! These images show the house and surrounding countryside. My garden is long and quite narrow, with a patio end where my new developments have been and a longer, more mature area, where my pond, hub and established wildlife meadow is. To one side is open fields. My office ver looks these fields. To the other side is the lane and my neighbour’s properties.
The patio area is where I have been planting a lot of new nectar-rich plants and a section of wildflower meadow. You can also see my water hole made from recycled tyres….
In this image, you can see my hub, with its living roof and you can also appreciate how many mature trees and hedgerows there are around the garden… all great for wildlife!
Due to the trees and overhanging branches, we could not go too high from the other end of the garden, but you can see my wildflower meadow, raised beds, a nest box and my hub.
Of course I had to try out the drone… under close supervision of course!
Over the next few weeks, I will be attempting to edit the footage Denis filmed and create a small video I hope.
A massive thank you to Denis… we had a great time and I was delighted to be able to give him a guided tour of the garden and also to have a play with this great bit of kit!
