Bird Activity

I should have probably titled this "Bird Inactivity." If you see a Great Blue Heron standing like this, walk away. Don't stand there watching, thinking that any minute now, it will do something. It won't. And it might stand like this for hours. I know. I have waited, bent over a ready camera, eternity passing with every tick of the clock, waiting for something to happen. And all I had to show for it was a back ache.

They may or may not be sleeping. It is sometimes hard to tell. They may start preening and spend hours doing that. But you are wasting your time if you expect them to do something. They won't.

I assumed from the outset of taking bird pictures that every bird probably had a tell - some little indication that they were about to fly. Do they squat down so they can jump into the air? Do they spread their wings as they get ready to drop down off a branch? Turns out, I can name only one bird that I know of that has one and that is the Canada Goose. They almost always start honking before they fly.  But that is it. I have watched a lot of bird species, specifically looking for a sign that they were going to fly or dive or the like. In most cases they just don't exhibit any indication they are getting ready to do something.