Penguin parade

There were rumours of sunshine today (which turned out to be somewhat exaggerated), but we decided to use the bargain tickets to the zoo that I'd acquired from work some time ago.

The chimps were looking particularly relaxed in their posh new Budongo house and it was good to remember that Mercedes the old polar bear has been retired to the Highland Wildlife Park where she gets to play in the snow. The Amur leopard was pacing his cage though - I don't think that's good. Only 35 of the beautiful creatures left in the wild though. :-(

In the end I decided to blip that old Edinburgh zoo favourite, the penguin parade. Every afternoon at 2.15 pm the keepers open the gate to the penguin enclosure and see if any of them want to come out for a short stroll round the circular pathway outside. The king penguins always seem the keenest; here they all are, with a couple of gentoos ahead of them out of the frame. The males have bands on their right flippers, so I think there's only one lady here, with the turquoise band on her left. The less brightly coloured chap at the front is an adolescent, only hatched in 2009.

But the penguin right at the back, slowing everyone down, is A Very Important Penguin. He is Sir Nils Olav, the commander in chief of the Norwegian Kings Guard. (No, really, he is!) I found a couple of blips of what I take to be some of his troops. They look very fine.

We later saw Sir Nils Olav dozing in a corner, presumably digesting the huge fish he had just eaten.