Pressure is the amount of force exerted on a unit area. There are two kinds of pressures, the static pressure and dynamic pressure. Static pressure is the amount of pressure exerted by a non moving liquid due to gravity. When there is a container filled with water, there is a static pressure exerted by the water on the bottom of the container because of gravity.
Regarding: I am trying to understand which is the best place to place a static pressure probe and how it is affected by eddies/turbulence , valves, pipe bends etc....links to papers / detailed explanations would be very helpful
Is it common to see static pressure bouncing around if is placed in eddies/regions of flow swirling ?
You are observing the total pressure of the combined static pressure and dynamic pressure.
If a fluid is not moving (and open to atmospere), the measured pressure is the same in all directions is the static pressure. But if the fluid is moving, the measured pressure depends both on the static pressure and on the pressure caused by the energy of its motion, in the direction of that motion. The added pressure from the fluid's motion is called dynamic pressure.
If you want to measure the static pressure accurately, the fluid will have to be at rest.