Oh my god! PENGUIN

[fran]

No, I didn't take any drugs nor did I have a drop of alcohol, but I just saw a fucking PENGUIN on the beach! No kidding! I shone my mobile phone torch on it and it ran into the water. It was quite small. I had no clue what so ever that they come here. Or did it escape from a zoo or a private exotic pet collector?

[bramble]

Might have been an Auk or something?


[hr]

And the tears come streaming down your face. When you lose something you cant replace. When you love someone but it goes to waste. Could it be worse?

[fran]

I've no idea why it didn't work when I tried to post it first. And I can't seem to delete the thread. Sorry!

[spockette]

What beach? If it was on East Sands, I'm going to go penguin hunting now.

OMG PENGUIN.

You're sure it was a penguin and not, like, a normal bird or anything?

[Paranoid]

Interesting...would completely defy the natural instincts of the little things as I went on a trip last week down in Tassie and they say Penguins are habitual i.e. always returning to the same place they were born.

Anyway arent penguins based in the south pole and thus the southern hemisphere? Or am I mistaken (probably!)

[hr]

..I've got this pain down all the diodes on my left side...

[Paranoid]

oh just as a general warning, its not recommended that you shine any sort of artificial light directly onto a penguin as it does actually blind them...their eyesight is very poor but any sudden change in light is too much for them to handle...therefore please try to aim the focus of your torch slightly away from the animal itself

From your Penguin-friendly traveller

[hr]

..I've got this pain down all the diodes on my left side...

[flarewearer]

Take it from a birdwatcher, what you saw was MORE than likely to have been a guillemot. Although not the size of a penguin, they share the body form and colouration very closely, and move the same way on the land. They have a habit of coming onto the beaches of the North Sea coast when they get blown onshore by storm winds; they wait out the storm on the beach then head back to their feeding grounds. Like you said, it was small and it was dark. I can't think of any other explanation. (P.S, they don't always have the "spectacle" around the eye, especially as you move north)



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[Prophet Tenebrae]

Either that or it was a midget in a suit.

[hr]

IMAGE:www.btinternet.com/~brother.war/white10-2.gif

[[James]]

Either that or it was a midget in a suit.

[Icecradle]

Man, I love penguins, but yeah, like was said above, they live in Antartica, so the likelihood of one being here up north is miniscule. Shame.

Interesting post about the Guillemot, I can see how they would look like a penguin.

[DrAlex]

Quoting Icecradle from 12:32, 13th Oct 2005
they live in Antartica

South Africa, too. Robben Island, the old prison where people like Mandella were held is now a penguin sanctuary as well as a museum.

[hr]

"But, I really love your arrogant overtones [, Alex] (I still like you, man)."-threekings

[David]

you can buy a giant inflatable penguin for £20 in dundee

[Colin]

Quoting DrAlex from 13:01, 13th Oct 2005

Quoting Icecradle from 12:32, 13th Oct 2005
they live in Antartica

South Africa, too. Robben Island, the old prison where people like Mandella were held is now a penguin sanctuary as well as a museum.

and in Chile. Some penguins, just because:

[Dave the Explosive Newt]

[hr]

Will Watson - half man, half beast. All awesome.

[fran]

No, it wasn't a guillemot. It didn't have an entirely black beak. And it wasn't that dark: As I told you, I had a torch. It wasn't tiny, tiny, tiny, just not as big as I thought it would be. But maybe that's just cause I have misconceptions about how big a penguin should be. I always randomly imagined them to be as big as a small person.
I think it was probably thrown out by one of those annoying people with too much money who collect exotic pets and then "dispose" of them when they get too big.
It looked like this:
http://www.letus.org/bmatters/images/penguin.jpg

[fran]

Oh, BTW: it was on West Sands. Near the end.

[Zombie Sheep]

I once thought I saw a penguin on the beach, but it turned out not to be. I assume the same is the case here.

[hr]

This post may be intended in jest and should be read as such. Any queries relating to the seriousness of it should be addressed to the author. The author requests that readers DO NOT follow the advice or requests in this post. This statement is retrospective with regards to all previous sinner posts.

http://www.zombiesheep.name

[flarewearer]

Quoting fran from 16:49, 13th Oct 2005
No, it wasn't a guillemot. It didn't have an entirely black beak.
http://www.letus.org/bmatters/images/penguin.jpg

In that case could it have been a Razorbill.

[img]http://www.stabbs.com/shared/graphics/birds/razorbill.gif[/img]

Bare in mind these birds go through winter / summer plumage phases, and so the balance of black and white shifts with the seasons.

There arent really any larger Auks around the UK than that. In reality it could only have been an auk, as they have the small wings and penguin like stature and colouration. There is the Black Guillemot, but that is quite small, confined mainly to the North West and has bright red feet.

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[me]

No, there is a penguin. I've seen it on the golf course before.

Quoting spockette from 23:52, 12th Oct 2005
What beach? If it was on East Sands, I'm going to go penguin hunting now.

OMG PENGUIN.

You're sure it was a penguin and not, like, a normal bird or anything?

[poop]

Quoting flarewearer from 17:50, 13th Oct 2005

Quoting fran from 16:49, 13th Oct 2005
No, it wasn't a guillemot. It didn't have an entirely black beak.
http://www.letus.org/bmatters/images/penguin.jpg

In that case could it have been a Razorbill.

[img]http://www.stabbs.com/shared/graphics/birds/razorbill.gif[/img]

Bare in mind these birds go through winter / summer plumage phases, and so the balance of black and white shifts with the seasons.

There arent really any larger Auks around the UK than that. In reality it could only have been an auk, as they have the small wings and penguin like stature and colouration. There is the Black Guillemot, but that is quite small, confined mainly to the North West and has bright red feet.

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image:www.magnificentoctopus.com/x/glosoli.png

I see whats going on here! Is that what the penguin told you to say?

-Billy Madison