Thursday, May 17, 2007

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!

9 comments:

Jen said...

My gawd - they really are blue! Love the penguins. :)

Got the greatest postcard of a kookaburra yesterday, too - thanks so much for remembering me, Valerie, you're so sweet!

Anonymous said...

What beautiful little penguins!

And that sweater is very pretty :)

Aime

April said...

That's it. I'm moving to Australia. They have amazing wildlife and beautiful kid's sweaters. What more could I want?

Would you bring me back a penquin?

Laura B said...

What a cool place!

Anonymous said...

When knitting for active toddlers, I always say add in extra room (especially in the arms), and make it long. Bum-long. But a cardigan is meant to be worn over another shirt, so you might not need that length.

Perry may be 3 but we put him in size 4T or 5T (and he's tracking as average on height and below average on weight).

Earin Marybird said...

Ridiculously cute. That pretty much sums it up. You are having way too much fun!

Sigga Sif said...

They are so freaking cute! Surprising to see them standing on a beach in Australia. I thought they needed glaciers to survive... obviously I don't know anything about penguins except that they're cute ;-)

Anonymous said...

I'm insanely jealous! What beautiful pictures. I'm glad you're having a good time.

The sweater looks great.

Anonymous said...

Those penquins and quokkas and joeys *are* adorable. How about posting a pic of the cute Australian you're bringing back for me? ;)

Eileen