March To The Penguins

(P1 Photo Courtesy Dreamworks Animation
Skg/penguin Photo Courtesy Edinburgh Zoo)

How far are you willing to go for a glimpse of a private glimpse of a Penguin now that "March of the Penguins" has left you wanting so much more? The Washington Post has a guide to "Where The Wild Things Waddle."

This Land Is Their Land
The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore (Druid Hill Park; $15) has about 50 African penguins living on the zoo's Rock Island. Details: 410-366-LION

Las Vegas: Where Flamingos and Penguins live together in peace. The Flamingo Hotel has a free Wildlife Habitat replete with all kinds of exotic animals, including African penguins. Don't miss the daily penguin feedings at 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Details: 800-732-2111

Far Flung Places
Antarctica, South and Central America and Australia are chief among the distant destinations where various penguin species call home.

Magdalena Island, a penguin sanctuary and rookery in Patagonia, Chile, is swarming with Magellanic penguins -- some 60,000 pairs -- who come here to do their nesting. A handful of tour operators include a stop at the Strait of Magellan island on their cruise itineraries. You can also take a day trip from Punta Arenas, Argentina; Gotolatin.com, for example, offers a daily sojourn to Magdalena and Marta islands, both part of Los Pinguinos National Monument. Cost is $62; best to go December to February. Info: 866-464-1519

You can practically live among African penguins at Boulders Beach Lodge (011-27-21-786-1758) in Simon's Town, South Africa. Penguins roam freely around the lodge and restaurant. Nightly room rates from about $58 double.

From Here To There
On Feb. 9, the National Zoo offers "Galapagos: Ecuador's Enchanted Islands," home to indigenous Galapagos penguins. The 12-day trip is $4,565 per person double, plus $845 for airfare out of Dulles. Details: 800-423-4236.

The Baltimore Aquarium offers a Nov. 1-11 trip to Botswana, where you're likely to see Jackass penguins. The price is $5,595 per person double and includes air from BWI. Details: aquarium, 410-576-3800; Classic Escapes, 800-627-1244.

Black Tie March

Photo by Jérôme Maison ©2005 Bonne Pioche Productions/Alliance De Production Cinematographique

"MARCH OF THE PENGUINS" - National Geographic Feature Films President Adam Leipzig introduces the premiere DC screening of the new National Geographic and Warner Independent Pictures documentary, "March of the Penguins," a story told by actor Morgan Freeman about emperor penguins as they embark on their annual migration to and from their Antarctic breeding grounds. Also participating is director of the film, Luc Jacquet, who lived in Antarctica for 13 months following and filming the penguins. Prior to the screening Sea World conducts an educational presentation with Magellanic penguins.

TONIGHT: Tuesday, June 7, 2005
Location: National Geographic Society, 1600 M St. NW.
Notes: Event starts at 6 p.m., film screening at 6:30 p.m.
Q & A follows the screening.
*Order Tickets

Free admission to the first 30 people wearing penguin attire

"The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill"

IT WAS an article about parrots that drew filmmaker Judy Irving to San Francisco, where the author, Mark Bittner, resided.

Bittner, a bearded, ponytailed, formerly homeless ex-musician, was taking care of a flock of wild conures (the correct term for parrots) on the Greenwich Steps of tony Telegraph Hill. They weren't his birds, per se, but he fed them regularly. And they kept coming back. People called him the Saint Francis of Telegraph Hill.

The filming of "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill", took 4 1/2 years, Irving says, because she was trying to capture the perfect footage of Bittner's birds

The movie, showing at Landmark's E Street Cinema (11th and E streets NW; 202-452-7672) and the Avalon Theatre (5612 Connecticut Ave. NW; 202-966-6000), captures that bird's first flight, as well as other unfolding events. And it outlines the personal life journey that brought Bittner into this almost mythical relationship with his various species of conures.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23705-2005Mar10.html

Washington Post Review

It is also a book:

A Nobleman's Birds' Life

"The Life of Birds" took three years to make at a cost of $15 million. Sir David Attenborough traveled 256,000 miles during filming - 10 times round the Earth.

They used ultra-slow motion filming, night vision cameras and tiny cameras that film inside nests, allied to plain old-fashioned field craft, to bring in footage of some of the world's rarest birds and examples of remarkable avian behavior never filmed before.

You may have to hunt around to catch the series, but the website is a wealth of information.