{"id":30931,"date":"2021-08-23T06:32:35","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T13:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=30931"},"modified":"2021-08-23T09:48:59","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T16:48:59","slug":"heron-drag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=30931","title":{"rendered":"Heron drag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This posting is about the aerodynamic drag on a flying Great Blue Heron. So why open with pictures of the Sandhill Crane? Well, the two species are often confused. Further, they have different strategies for minimizing aerodynamic drag.<\/p>\n<p>We see both species: the Sandhill Crane is a warm season visitor to the south end of the Main Lake; the Great Blue Heron is a permanent resident of all the Lake. And for good measure, I toss a swan into the discussion.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I start with the flawed tradition of offering a digression on a digression (heron &gt; crane &gt; cranberry), I note that the cranberry is named after the crane; it is literally the <em>crane berry<\/em>. This close view of bare skin on the head of a Sandhill Crane suggests why.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10185\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/sandhillcrane140403H.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Here are two Sandhill Cranes on the Creston Flats.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1716\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/sandhillcranes110514as.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And here are two Great Blue Herons on the West Arm. At a casual glance, the one might be mistaken for the other, both being big birds with long necks and legs. However, cranes and herons even belong to different families.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-30934\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/heron140808bs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This view of a heron, which has just taken to the air, illustrates the reason that long-necked birds need to address the problem of aerodynamic drag. The S-shaped neck sets up turbulence in the airflow across it, so increases the drag. Quickly it will adjust its neck.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-30376\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/heron210418s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Sandhill Crane, with a somewhat less flexible neck, flies with it fully extended.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1717\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/sandhillcranes110514bs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"719\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So do both of our swan species. This is a Trumpeter Swan.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-25348\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/trumpeterswan181209cs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The heron adopts a different solution to the problem of drag. In sustained flight, the heron tucks its head tightly against its back to provide a smooth flow of air across its head and back. One does wonder whether the crane or the heron adopted the better solution.\u00a0<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5352\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/heron120530s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; This posting is about the aerodynamic drag on a flying Great Blue Heron. So why open with pictures of the Sandhill Crane? Well, the two species are often confused. Further, they have different strategies for minimizing aerodynamic drag. We &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=30931\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30931"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31004,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30931\/revisions\/31004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}