Local bird ground effect over water update

Friday, August 25, 2023

• Local coots are the ground effect champions. If they ever actually fly out of ground effect, they do it in secret
• Cormorants always break ground effect and fly over bridges carrying power cables
• Crows won’t fly under bridges in ground effect. They’ll happily cross the Lea in ground effect, but very few will fly up-river. The ones who do will always pull up over the A13
• Pigeons use ground effect for rapid course corrections and high-speed, high-risk bounce landings. For pigeons it always seems tactical. They use a range of frankly insanely risky flight strategies
• Not sure if grey wagtails count - their flight is ballistic - but it seems the do ground effect bounces over stretches of open water