Two weekends ago, Thomas and I went birdwatching in Champagne (blog post coming soon). Although we saw many birds on our trip, we spotted them through our scope, further than we could capture with our cameras. The next weekend, though, we guaranteed ourselves some bird photo-ops at Parc Paradisio outside of Mons. Our buddies, Reid and her daughter Connor, joined us for the fun.
I was instantly drawn to Parc Paradisio in our Belgium guide book because it promised hundreds of exotic birds. When we arrived, we discovered the price was higher than a normal zoo at almost 20 euros per person, but we figured after our 1.5 hour drive, we couldn’t turn around just yet. I’ll admit that I was disappointed at first, when we found cages of birds lining the sidewalk. They were beautiful, exotic birds, but I have become spoiled in my zoo photography after our Behind the Scenes Atlanta Zoo Tour.
We continued on, and I’m glad we did. Just a little further and we were surrounded by a beautiful Japanese garden with waterfalls, pagodas, peaceful music, and cranes out in the open. As we had specifically been searching for cranes on our Champagne trip, it was a real treat to see all the varieties they had there.
The park also had sections for giraffes, elephants, monkeys, etc. They weren’t as fancy as the Japanese garden, but they were nicely landscaped, clean, and the animals has some room to roam. The coolest part of the park, however, was the playground. It gets two thumbs up from the toddler in our group, and the adults. They had rope bridges strung all over the place, giant spider webs to climb, bowl-shaped swings you can lay in, and my favorite, which you can see Reid and Connor on below, was a see-saw that not only went up and down, but also around.
So overall, despite the high cost, and the long drive, it was well worth it. Thomas and I have already decided that whenever our niece and nephew come visit us, we’re going to take them to Parc Paradisio.
All of these photos were shot with an 80-200 mm lens. If you’d like to see more photos from the park, I’ve posted them on Flickr:
- Parc Paradisio (20 photos)
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Great photos! I think they really show off that you can get decent photos of birds behind fencing with the right technique.
.-= Thomas Stromberg´s last blog ..Amazing Austria =-.
Beautiful bird photography!
.-= Kristi S´s last blog ..The Long Forgotten Colorado Post #1 =-.
These birds are divine!! I just keep coming back and looking at them! I can’t pick a favorite though so don’t ask. :)