Bicheno, Australia
Penguin Tour
We stopped by the Pengiun Tours desk at the Surf Shop in the afternoon.
We'll return at 7:45pm for the 8:00pm tour which is limited to 27 people. We will go on a bus from the Surf Shop,to the rookery. I can't wait!
The tour started with some photos and information about the Fairy Penguins. They are the world's smallest penguins.
Some penguins live here all year, but most spend the autumn and winter at sea, only coming to shore for the breeding season and to moult. The boys who are born here will always come back here. The girls will travel to new locations to breed.
We went out to the beach, very quietly, to see the penguins come in for the night.
Step 1. They gather on the rocks in the shallow water to discuss their exit plan. We waited quite a while for the 1st group to make the next step.
Step 2. A group gathers courage and moves to the shore. We watched three groups of about 20 penguins come in at 3 different locations over one hours time.
Step 3. They elect a penguin to run/ waddle (they have no knees) up the beach to the beach grass. If he makes it, the rest of the group follows. Every night a different penguin goes first. They are prey, and an eagle lives nearby, so they have to be careful.
Step 4. At the beach grass, they stop to preen and chat.
Step 5. They go to their burrows.
One of the partners always stays in the burrow with the eggs.
No one is allowed to take photos, so the tour provides photos. These look exactly like the little guys we met. When the third group arrived at the grooming and chatting area, our guide told us to stay extremely still. I did, and the little penguins walked between my legs, stood on my feet and walked around me. I was THRILLED, but I did not move. I barely breathed. It was so cool. Russ was standing diagonally beside/behind me and when I thought all the penguins had moved on, he pointed to the tall grass and one more was wandering about. Wow!!!
Time to groom and chat. They are pretty noisy little guys.
Walking to their burrow.
On the way out our guide picked up the top of a man made burrow and showed us one of the penguins sitting on the eggs. We did not see the egg like in this picture. The egg was hidden beneath the parent.
Woohoo! What a great experience :)
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