Flying in Ground Effect

The Great Blue Heron knows exactly where the water surface is as its wingtips gently brush the surface. Flying this low requires much less effort as induced drag goes to almost zero when this close to the surface.

nice shot.. awesome bird

Amazing shot, Bill, and fascinating fact about the bird's flight.

kmunroe wrote in post #11056883
nice shot.. awesome bird

jgrussell wrote in post #11060659
Amazing shot, Bill, and fascinating fact about the bird's flight.

Thanks, kmunroe and Judy.

The GBH is essentially floating on a cushion of compressed air when they are close enough to touch the water. You can see some evidence of this by looking at the trailing edge of of its flight feathers and see how much they are curled up including the light colored feathers at mid chord which indicate the relatively lower pressure flowing across the top of the wing.

Nice shot

akhan wrote in post #11062526
Nice shot

Thank you, akhan.

Nice capture with the wing tip just touching the water.

Don1 wrote in post #11067661
Nice capture with the wing tip just touching the water.

Thanks, Don. Of course, it is possible that the GBH needs glasses and is "feeling" its way across the lake.