Purple-Heron-4361, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

I’m just blown away by this shot …
We went birding up on the Lagoa Sto AndrĂ© this morning, driving through heavy showers all the way, hoping against hope that the weather would be kind to us once we got there, and we must have done something right ‘cos it was beautifully sunny for the three hours we were there. Anyway, we saw loads and loads, but the best to be sure was this beauty flying right over us; they just don’t get much better …!