Whilst this is by no means a perfect shot (with an old Nikon S9900 digital camera), I like the framing and those steely blue-grey feathers, and the snake-lie markings on the underside of his neck. This heron is always to be found by the lake in the Tournay-Solvay park, adjoining the Sonian forest and just below a romantic chateau, contrustruced by Alfred Solvay in 1878 (the Solvays are a famous Belgian family who made their fortune as industrialists and founded the Solvay chemical company). It is in the Flemish neo-renaissance style popular at the time, but has since been ravaged by fire and has fallen into ruin.

There’s a lot of wonderful wildlife in this area, a truly stunning potager (classical French-style vegetable garden), an orchard, an unusual rose garden and some sculptures in the parkland, so I’ll be posting some more about this place.