Field journal

Drone flight over the hilltop

Woodland Hilltop

  • A small quadcopter drone hovers in a clear blue sky above oaks and pines at the top of a hill, with low shrubs and wood-chip mulch on the slope below.

    A drone in the air over the top of the hill.

A drone in the air over Woodland Hilltop Arbory on the afternoon of September 21, hovering above the oaks and pines near the top of the hill under a clear sky. Below it, low shrubs and wood-chip mulch cover the slope.

Video and stills from flights like this one are a running record of the hilltop from above, kept since September 2024 and available on request. Flight logs, with their positions, are never published.

All field journal entries More from Woodland Hilltop More on AI-powered land monitoring

More from Woodland Hilltop

  • At night, a black-and-white skunk with its bushy tail raised stands in short green grass beside a dirt track, lit by a bright beam, with its shadow on the track behind it. +1 photo

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Two skunks on a November night

    Two skunks crossed a grassy track on the hilltop at Woodland Hilltop Arbory at about 8:20 pm on November 21, 2025, caught in the beam of a…

  • A small plant with deep blue, bell-shaped flowers and round, toothed gray-green leaves grows from bare reddish soil, with a shaded path behind it.

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Seed-mix wildflowers on bare ground

    One of the native wildflowers from the seed mix we sowed at Woodland Hilltop Arbory, in bloom on bare ground beside a path in mid-June. We…

  • Small yellow-and-white tidy tips and pale blue baby blue eyes flowers grow among flat stones lining a shallow swale. +1 photo

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Wildflowers in the swales

    Tidy tips (Layia platyglossa) and baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii) are blooming in one of the rock-lined contour swales at Woodland…

  • A single spike of deep blue-and-white lupine flowers rises from wood-chip mulch, with young lupine leaves at its base and blurred green shrubs and trees behind. +2 photos

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Lupine through the wood-chip mulch

    Lupine (Lupinus sp.) was flowering through the wood-chip mulch at Woodland Hilltop Arbory on April 6, 2025, among low, leafy shrubs, on…

  • Seen from a drone flying low over a hilltop, two tall pines and an oak stand at the edge of a slope of wood-chip mulch and low gray-green plants, with wooded ridges and wispy clouds beyond. +1 photo

    · Woodland Hilltop

    A low drone pass over the mulched hilltop

    On the afternoon of March 23, 2025, we flew a small drone low over the top of Woodland Hilltop Arbory, skimming the masticated ground.…

  • A gloved hand holds a smooth brown acorn topped by a thick, golden, fuzzy cup, with yellow dust on the glove's fingers and leaf litter and wood chips on the ground below.

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Golden-cupped acorn on the hilltop

    An acorn with a thick, golden, felted cup, held in a work glove at Woodland Hilltop Arbory on October 28. Yellow dust, probably fuzz from…

  • The Milky Way runs up a starry night sky above dark silhouettes of oaks and pines, with a faint pale glow and a few small lights along the horizon. +1 photo

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Milky Way over the hilltop

    On a clear night at Woodland Hilltop Arbory, around 9 pm on September 29, the Milky Way stood over the oaks and pines on the hilltop, with…