Every so often, if I am leaning insouciantly against a mantelpiece at a swish cocktail party, a fellow-guest will approach me and say something along the lines of “Mr Key, you probably know more about ornithology than anyone else in the world, or at least anyone else at this swish cocktail party, certainly anyone else leaning insouciantly against this mantelpiece. Tell me, what is your favourite of all the birds of the air?”

My reply to this will vary from day to day, hour to hour, even minute to minute, but if I were to be asked right now, I would say “A mordant heron”.

And lo!, here is a particularly mordant heron, from Banished’s Bugs, home of Hooting Yard reader and correspondent Banished To A Pompous Land.