A visit to Penguin Island

I've always wanted to go see Penguin Island, a tiny island off the coast south of Perth which is Western Australia's largest breeding colony of Little Penguins (also known as "blue" or "fairy" penguins). Rob, however, thought it might be too commercialized and touristy. But when some friends of ours expressed an interest, he agreed to go, and it turns out it's mostly quite natural. Gorgeous, in fact.

The penguins, however, only come onto the island at night (when tourists are not allowed). So the tourist must visit the penguins in the care center, where ten rescued and born-in-captivity penguins reside in relative luxury. They are just as ridiculously cute as you might imagine.



When I get back to the States I'll post some videos of all these animals so you can peek. Not enough bandwidth at the moment, alas.

The island has great bird life as well. We saw pied oyster-catchers, crested terns — and grumpy gulls (protecting their rather rudimentary nests, which we saw everywhere with pretty spotted eggs in them).



We also saw a pretty "Twenty-Eight" parrot. I love these, though the farmers resent them for stealing fruit. They have a lovely call.

On the knitting front, all the driving gave me time to finish Carson's Little Star cardigan except for the I-cord ties. I just hope it fits — the body looks small and the arms look huge. I guess we'll find out and I can easily make adjustments once it's tried on!