Fairy Penguins on Phillip Island

A couple of hours southeast of Melbourne is an beautiful seashore area. This area is home to many kinds of native Australian wildlife. One of the most well known are the Fairy Penguins. They are now called the Little Penguins as that is more politically correct. Oi!

At any rate, these amazing little birds hunt for food during the day and come home to nest at night. Visitors are welcome to observe this ritual any evening. The little penguins swim up to the beach and congregate in groups at the waters edge. When their buddies have all arrived they troupe up the hillside to their burrows in the shrubby hillsides. A group on the beach is pictured above. No photographs are allowed to protect the penguins so this image was scanned from a postcard.

Here are some photos of the Observatory where you can look into Penguin Burrows.

This is one of those places you really have to experience to get the full effect. It was somewhat cold the night we went and very windy as the land cooled and the winds turned inland. There was a cacophony of bird chatter with the mating of the penguins and the cries of the seagulls. The skies were clear and the heavens so unobscured by light interference as in most areas in the U.S. that Mars and Venus could be easily seen and were some of the brightest bodies in the sky.