Penguin Island

Another of our field trips when my mom was here was to Penguin Island.  Dylan planned the day off so we could all go together.  It's a cool place - middle of a nature reserve, no one on the island at night but the penguins, nothing but a small visitors' center and research station on the island.  It's a 5 minute ferry ride to the island, where there's one small dock.  At that dock is the glass bottom boat that will take you to see sea lions or dolphins, depending what's been seen in the marine park that day.  The captain was a bit nuts, the sound system a bit loud, and the view through the bottom of the boat a bit dull.  Plus, the baby was cranky because it was nap time.  So, not the best boat ride ever, BUT, we saw dolphins!

 

The visitors' center has an indoor aquarium with a handful of Little Penguins (just like the ones Heather and I went to see at Phillip's Island back in November) that, for various reasons, couldn't be released into the wild.  So they do a few feedings during the day so everyone gets the chance to see these cute little things.

Kaylee slept through the feeding, since she was so desperate for her nap.  But we went back later to let her see them.

It was also nesting season for the seagulls on the island.  I have never seen so many seagulls NOT fighting over food.  Seriously.  There were all kinds of families having picnics outside the visitors' center (including us) and the island is covered in seagulls and not one of them is harassing the people because they're too busy protecting their nests and eggs.  Now, if they weren't idiots who plut their nests on the ground right next to the paths maybe they wouldn't have to spend so much time panicking about the people.  Just a thought. 

The best part of the day was probably seeing an actual Little Penguin in his nest under a bush.  They're nocturnal, and generally spend all day out fishing and only return after sunset (as we saw at Phillip's Island) but for whatever reason, this little one had stayed in his nest and we heard him calling.  After a good 10 minutes of looking a bit silly sticking our heads into the bush to look for him, Dylan and I were able to spot him and felt quite proud of ourselves.  No picture, though.

Anyway, the whole day was beautiful and we all had a great time.

Forgive the not-so-awesome photography.  I had forgotten the good camera, AGAIN, and was forced to employ the iPhone for all the shots.