Aussiehalley - Halley Down Under

Penguin seen, Halley do

Last week, we went to see the Fairy Penguins of Phillip Island. These penguins are popularly called, "Little Penguins." You know why? They're little. Shocking.

At most, they'd weigh a little over a pound. That's before they've molted, and after they've been gorging themselves on sea delicacies, like salt-water taffy, for weeks on end. They then hang out in their nests for a while and molt. Like after a long holiday, you just sit on the couch, watch tv and your peeling skin. Same thing.

It's dangerous for them to go back in before they've grown their new coats. Both parents take turns tending to the young. The young are loud and fuzzy. Make your own comparison here.

I know these facts and many more because the rangers at the preserve were terribly friendly and available. We all took advantage, separately asking questions to the rangers stationed around the area for approximately 17 hours, cumulatively. In fact, the four of us (me, Kim, Christine, and Eric) were the last ones out of the park, and had the boardwalks close down behind us as we were gently ushered to the front by a line, eight across, of rangers in official red ponchos - ostensibly so no one mistakes them for the jerks who paid $26 for the fancy green ponchos, or the cheaper jerks who paid $7 for the blue tarps/ponchos. These are not to be confused with our phyllum of jerk, who ignored reports of rain and said, screw it, I'm not buying a poncho, we're already wet anyway.

The rain stopped. The penguins were adorable. Tiny little things. Waddling in groups. They were like pods of waving fields of wheat, in miniature.

In theory, I *really* wanted to pick one up. I wanted to pick it up, kiss it on the keppe, and call it Pooh Bear. In reality, they are supposedly nasty to hold, would peck your face if you got close enough to kiss it, and definitely don't like being called Pooh Bear. Still, it was a quite amazing sight to see.

Around 9:00 pm, they start coming out of the sea after a day of fishing, to return to their mates who stayed back at the nests with the youngins, or if the babies were a little older, both went out to come home to anxious squalking. We paid a couple extra bucks to get to the good boardwalks, which are set up to give viewing spots for the penguins coming out of the water and all the way up into the hills where their nests are. So we got right up next to them. Close enough to get pecked, if they were tall enough to reach the boardwalk, which only put us about a foot off the ground, if that.

I watched a pair of baby penguins come down the hill from their nest. The bold one ran down it, making it known that they were there and they were hungry. The smaller one followed down slower, staying closer to the nest. And when it got too noisy, the little one would run back.

The adults came out of the sea in groups called rafts. The first back to shore waited by the water's edge for a bit. Probably saw a bird circling. Birds eat Little Penguins. Like late-night canapes. Soon, though, the coast was clear (literally), and they started running for the hills, down the walkway next to the boardwalk. They'd get tired and stop along the way. It's rough being a penguin. One even was scooting in on his/her stomach because walking was too hard after a day of good eatin'.

There's no photography allowed (don't want to scare 'em away), but the gift shop was happy to sell me some shots.

Earlier, we spent some hours around the island (only an hour or so drive from Melbourne), at the Nobbies. The Nobbies are large hills in the water. Get your mind out of the gutter. There's also a seal island there. I paid $2 to use a telescope to see out to the island for approximately 15 seconds. The seals weren't particularly easy to see, even then. But they were there, laying on the rocks, like big puppies in a basket. A very large, wet basket.

Along the coastline there, there's another boardwalk. It was an area "loved to death," where people walked on it so much, all the groundcover was gone, so were the native flowers that lived on it, as well as the nesting grounds for gulls and terns, and the little penguin burrows. The groundcover is back, thanks to protection agencies and the boardwalk, and the whole area is covered in green. It looks like the Irish countryside a bit. Only there's no peat, or even grass. The area is covered in succulents that look like jade plants, with little purple flowers.

To top off all the natural beauty were the bird carcasses from territorial fighting. Yum.

We found the town and found a dinner place. Our dinner was taking a while (it takes a while to grow the stuff for a salad), so I asked the waitress if we could have a piece of the cake to start with. She told me no, we had to have dessert after we ate our dinner. ...uhhh, okay.

By the time we drove home, we had pictures of me waddling around like a penguin, pictures of Eric with the Nobbies sign, and pictures of the sun peaking through clouds, turning the water golden. With a dead seagull in the background.

posted by Halley @ 4:28 AM