Penguin colony, some in the main enclosure and some outside for their Wee Waddle.

Including, sadly, my final photos of Snowflake. He was put down earlier this week. He was pretty old for a penguin (28, significantly older than he would have managed in the wild) and he'd been limping for a while now. I suppose the keepers decided that the pain medication wasn't helping him any more.

Penguin time! They haven't been able to reinstate the Penguin Parade, but it's apparently been determined that the risk of bird flu in the area is low enough now that it's safe to start letting the penguins out again, so they've put a roughly knee-high fence around a section of the path outside the main enclosure for what they're calling the Wee Waddle. It's not quite the same, but they get to have a wander around and see an area they'd usually be kept out of, and visitors get to see them up closer than when they're in the main habitat. They seem to be quite into it! A lot of them came outside for a look around, though Snowflake had made himself quite comfortable where he was and declined to take part.

Penguin colony also still going strong. They got a decent number of chicks this year including five new northern rockhoppers, which is good - the best they've ever had, in fact - because the rockies are the most endangered of the three species of penguin at the zoo. They don't get their yellow eyebrows until they're about a year old, but they still have little feather-tufts where they'll grow.

Snowflake had hurt his flipper, so he's been put in penguin jail until the bandage can come off.

I was at the zoo at the weekend, and it's hatching season for the penguin colony! They have five (5) new rockies this year, which is pretty exciting as a) northern rockhoppers are an endangered species and b) they only got two last year, and plenty of new gentoos as well. Gentoo hatchlings, I feel, lean much more to the 'weird little dinosaur' end of the baby bird scale.

There was actually a crew from Blue Peter on site, filming the rockies being weighed (and presumably some other stuff from around the zoo); that's the presenter's arm you can see in the third photo. If I'd known in advance I could've worn my badge just to confuse everyone. I don't think I've watched Blue Peter since Matt Baker was presenting, but I might have to keep an eye out for this episode.

The central tank is surrounded by four other main display areas, one in each corner of the building, focussing on different oceanic regions: in order, the North Atlantic, with a huge aviary housing puffins and guillemots; the Southern Ocean with Magellanic penguins and free-flying inca terns; the north Pacific with a pair of sea otters; and the coral reefs of the Indian Ocean. Each area also includes large display tanks that you can look into from the lower floor of the building as well as the upper walkways.

The sea otters were fun to watch, but difficult to get good photos of. They swam around their tank so quickly that those were the only ones I got that were even vaguely in focus.

It's nesting season for the penguin colony again. They've got some new nesting rings this year, ones mocked up to have a more naturalistic rock effect rather than plain concrete. The penguins seem to have accepted the change without comment.

Part of my reason for visiting was to see how Snowflake was, as I hadn't spotted him on the webcam for a while.

He's fine!

The rockies have a habit of standing all in a row and generally looking like a squad of tiny Mafia goons.

here comes a special boy

Nils! He was promoted during the last festival; now he's Major General Sir Nils Olav III.

It's also got a pretty sizeable enclosure for its colony of Humboldt penguins - biggest penguin pool in England, in fact. NB, England, not the UK. Guess where the bigger one is! :D

Penguins are classically associated with Antarctica, but only a few species actually live there - mainly Emperors and Adelies on the mainland, plus a few more like Gentoos and Kings out on the peninsula and in the subantarctic islands. Humboldts are one of the more northerly species, living in South America along the coast of Peru and Chile, which I would guess is why they can tolerate summer in London.

One of the great sorrows of my life is that I cannot hug the penguins. Intellectually I know it would be a bad idea and an uncomfortable experience for both of us. But they're such a huggable shape.

The nesting season is still in full swing. Some of the older chicks are getting pretty close to adult size now, though they'll likely stay fluffy for another few weeks.

Edinburgh Zoo is - according to the members' magazine they sent me the other day - one of only six zoos worldwide to successfully breed northern rockhopper penguins. They have... at least one rockie chick this year! I know that there were two, but I only spotted one this time; I'm not sure if they lost the other one or if it was just hiding somewhere.

Went to the zoo yesterday, partly because the webcams have been down for a while (they're looking for a new hosting service, apparently) and I wanted to see how the penguins were getting on.

This one's called Nessie! As you can see, he has a bit of a spinal thing going on; I think the proper medical term is 'kyphosis' but don't quote me on that. I once asked one of the keepers about him and they said that they don't think it's genetic, as he's sired a few chicks by now and none of them have inherited it. Apparently the lead theory is that he somehow ended up in an odd position as an embryo and got a bit squashed in ovo as he grew. It doesn't seem to slow him down much.

I’m not... really sure what the arrangement here is. I don’t know if they’ve decided to form a threesome, someone is an interloper, or if they just all want the same nesting ring.

Egg time! It’s nesting season for the penguin colony, both the rockhoppers and the gentoos. Plenty of eggs have been laid but only a few have hatched so far, and I only got a good look at one of the rockhopper chicks. I did catch a glimpse of one of the gentoo hatchlings - not much bigger than its egg yet - but its parent didn’t move aside for long enough to get a photo.