The "Flasher" of the Bayou!

  The Flasher of the Bayou is called this for a simple reason.  The pose it has resembles what has been referred to as a flasher all these years. For those in the dark about this, Wikipedia (and most other dictionaries) defines the term as "a person who displays his/her body in a form of indecent exposure".  Well, the Flasher of the Bayou is not a person nor is he/she doing anything indecent.  It is just a term applied to a certain habit of some of the larger birds.  The Flasher of the Bayou happens to be a Great Blue Heron.

  If you watch critters as much as I do, you often can observe unusual actions.  Most of these have a logical explanation behind them.  Take the Flasher, for instance.  The heron spreads its wings and sort of lets them droop down to its sides.  This action makes the bird resemble the action of a person wearing a large overcoat that is held open in the front.  The bird is usually facing the sun when doing this which should give a hint behind the action.  With the sun beaming down upon the breast of the bird, not only can the bird warm itself but the sunlight kills any mites that are creepy-crawling around between the feathers.  

  On the other side of my brother's pier, I noticed several Great Blue Herons performing the same ritual high in the pine trees.  The morning sun was just getting quite bright (and actually a bit toasty) when each bird opened its wings and let them sag.  It was quite comical to see the three birds doing this in unison.  Being the only one on the pier at the time, I suppose that I was being "flashed" by all three!  Oh, my....the birds of the Bayou need to start behaving themselves!  (Just so you will know, this is the actual term applied by birders to the strange behavior of the herons.)