Beautiful and unseasonably warm day. We went to the Royal Botanical Gardens right in the middle of downtown Melbourne. It does seem that everything is bigger in Australia. Ferns are giant, Ficus and Norfolk Island pines reach monstrous sizes. (The tree in the right side foreground is a Norflok Island pine!)
This statue ia called the "Wiggy Pudding Dance". I think the round fellow in the middle is the pudding. Why he is dancing and with whom is not explained...
There was a very friendly black swan and these funny water birds called Dusky Moorhens. The Moorhens call sounds just like a clown’s bicycle horn or squeaking air out of a balloon. They don’t seem to be at all embarrassed though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNTJH5Arsns
On the topic of birds, just down from our street is the Port Phillip Bay and the St. Kilda pier. On a rocky outcropping from the pier there is a colony of the smallest species of penguin. They are sometimes called Fairy Penguins but we have been told that they prefer the term Little Penguins. They come to roost at dusk and dawn. We have been to the rocks at both times of day and caught glimpses of them coming in or going out. They are very shy and unfortunately because of the light we have been unable to get footage, but they are quite noisy and I will try to get some sound on the Flip cam soon.
Couldn't get the piggies video, but the moorhen was awesome....don't you need one or two of those at home to keep the "chickuns" company, along with a couple of racing ducks? (so streamlined.....how could they lay lots of eggs?). Thanks for the updates!
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