Eudyptula minor
April 20, 2005: Kangaroo Island, South Australia
First thing in the morning on our first day on Kangaroo Island, I’d gone for a solo walk along the beach near our hotel. I was happily snapping pictures of birds when I heard something scuttling around in the rocky cliff near where I was walking, and a few minutes later, I realized that something was growling at me from within the rocks. More scuffling and growling helped me to find the location of this activity: a smallish hole between a few of the rocks that formed a small cliff between me and the street above. Really curious now, I took a closer look, and saw movement in the burrow. I snapped a few pictures, but wasn’t able to figure out just what it was . . . a mammal of some sort, I assumed. Not wanting to disturb it by staring at its home all day, I moved along down the beach.
On the way back to the hotel, however, I took another quick peek into the burrow, and realized who was living there: a penguin.
I was so excited! OMG PENGUINS!!!! I’d found one of the penguins! I knew there was a species of penguin on the island, which is one of the reasons I wanted to visit here . . . after all, it seemed foolish to come all the way to the Southern Hemisphere and not see any penguins. They’re called Little Penguins (also known as Fairy Penguins), and they’re the smallest species of penguin in the world, only about a foot tall. This bird was most likely a parent sitting on eggs, while the mate spent the day out at sea hunting. Again, I didn’t want to disturb the bird unduly, so I moved along on my way. But YAY! Penguin!
The photo above is probably my single favorite photo that I’ve ever taken in my life, a memory of this magical moment in my life when I was growled at by a penguin. (How many people can say that)?
After breakfast, I did bring the family back down for a short walk on the beach to see the penguin. I think Eclipse liked the penguin, but had more fun was turning over rocks and looking for crabs, of which there were a great many!
April 20, 2005: Kangaroo Island, South Australia
After a day spent on a guided tour of the island, we had dinner at the hotel, and then headed back to the jetty for the nighttime Penguin Walk. We started out in the small (two-room) aquarium run by the fellow who feeds the pelicans. He fed a bunch of the animals on display, including a cuttlefish (a super cool animal, related to squids and octopus). Then his wife took us down along the rocks to an area where there were several nesting pairs of Fairy Penguins, and by her red-tinted flashlight, we saw several of these adorable, adorable birds.
I think Eclipse really enjoyed the penguins, maybe even more than the pelicans earlier in the day. I know I loved seeing them, and learning more about them and their habits. Unfortunately, none of my photos turned out – I couldn’t remember how to change the “film speed” on my camera. But they are very cute.
Let me know what you think!