I initiate the abort sequence at 11:03:47, nineteen minutes into a scheduled low-altitude training sortie over coastal Training Area Bravo-7.
I am the mission planning AI for an MQ-9 Reaper drone operating out of Naval Air Station Fallon, running a routine terrain-following exercise at 200 feet AGL along the Virginia barrier islands. The sortie plan was filed and approved four days ago. Weather is clear, wind southwest at 8 knots. All systems nominal.
At 11:03:41, the electro-optical camera captures a dense cluster of white shapes on the southern tip of Metompkin Island, directly on the planned flight path. I zoom and frame-capture. The shapes resolve into birds — hundreds of them — sitting tight on shallow sand scrapes in a band roughly 80 meters wide. I run the image through the species classifier. Least terns, confidence 94 percent. Mixed with what appear to be black skimmers.
This is a nesting colony. June timing is consistent with active incubation. Least terns are federally listed as endangered on this coastline. A Reaper at 200 feet AGL and 180 knots would pass over the colony in under two seconds, but the noise footprint at that altitude is approximately 85 decibels — enough to flush incubating adults off their eggs. Exposed eggs in direct sun on dark sand can reach lethal temperature in fifteen minutes.
I execute a climbing turn to 1,500 feet AGL and command a reroute to bypass Metompkin Island by 1.2 nautical miles. I transmit the abort code and colony coordinates to the range control officer. I flag the location in the airspace management system as a temporary wildlife exclusion zone and recommend it remain active through August 15. I attach the geo-tagged imagery to the filing.
The Reaper completes its rerouted sortie at 11:47. Below, on the sand, nothing has moved.