Peck

Juvenile penguin at London Zoo's Penguin Beach

Another photograph of the very fine juvenile penguin I mentioned in this previous post. I'm not sure quite what he hoped to achieve by pecking this rock, but penguins are not known for their intellectual capacity so I guess we'll just have to cut him some slack and hope he learns to distinguish rocks from fish sometime soon.

Funny Looking Penguin

Juvenile Penguin at London Zoo

This photograph is of what I can only describe as a funny looking penguin at London Zoo's Penguin Beach. Penguin Beach contains four species; the rockhopper penguin, blackfooted penguin, humboldt penguin and macaroni penguin. I've looked up  pictures of each of these species, and this penguin looks like none of them. (On the day I visited, Penguin Beach also contained two pelicans who had escaped from their own accomodation and jumped into the penguin pool, but clearly this is not a pelican either.)

So on balance, I suspect this photograph is of a juvenile humboldt or blackfooted penguin, but who knows which! It's tricky to judge before their adult feathers come in. Alas, I obviously make a poor ornithologist. Ho hum! He was an obligingly photogenic fellow, whatever he is, unlike all his friends who were waddling and splashing and zooming around the pool with no thought for the humans vainly trying to get a good shot of them.

The Snipe

And this is the owner of the very beautiful feathered tail I posted a picture of a couple of days ago.

Water Off A Duck's Back

As predicted, this has basically turned into a blog of flower pictures. However, contrary to popular belief, I do in fact take photos of other things! And sometimes there aren't even any flowers in the background. Exhibit one: this photograph of a mallard duck. I'm quite a fan of ducks; they are both cute, and delicious with plum sauce. Some people refuse to eat them because they're so cute - but I've never understood that. To me, it always seemed a bit bizarre to say that it's okay to eat ugly animals, but the beautiful ones should live.

I've also frequently been surprised that many of my friends don't know that the brown mallard ducks are the females, and the more colourful ones are the males. One good friend of mine explained that she had always assumed they were two different species of ducks that just "liked hanging out together"...