Phillip Island Fun

We are so fortunate that we had Mary as our own personal tour guide.  Although I wasn't able to take pictures of the penguins, it was still an amazing outing.  The park doesn't allow pictures since flashes and lights directly in their eyes is very disturbing to the little creatures.  The penguins on the island and in the Melbourne area in general are the smallest in the world sometimes called Fairy Penguins.  They stand about 3feet tall and weigh in at maybe 3-4 lbs.  Their coats are a shiny, deep blue and they make the most peculiar sound.  They are very social and spend a fair amount of time outside their burrows "chatting".  The night we went to the Penguin Parade was clear and just about the perfect temperature.  Mary had warned us that it is usually quite cold due to wind and general weather conditions on the point so we were very lucky. A bit after dusk the penguins start coming to shore from out in the water.  They come in groups called "'rafts" ranging from a few to 10-12 little birds.  They are prey for larger birds and so don't come to shore until after the predators are off to their roosts.  It was so funny to watch the interplay between the penguins and the sea gulls that seemed to wait for them.  One gull was take delight in chasing the raft as they came ashore and most would scatter back into the surf.  Eventually some of the penguins would tire of the chase and head on in to their burrows.  Some of the little birds just liked playing in the surf and would go out and back many times before they headed home.  Since there was a limited amount of time we would be allowed to be out on the point we split between watching them come ashore then off to the boardwalk to watch them waddle up to their burrows.  This is when we saw lots of preening, canoodling and general socializing.  Mary has volunteered quite a bit with penguin research up in Melbourne so we had a very knowledgeable guide to answer all  our questions.  It was a perfect evening.

Earlier that day we had her as our guide on the walk from a coast point up to a lighthouse then back again.  We also were able to watch part of a surfing completion going on at that beach.  The walk was unique in that it is all along hillsides with nesting sea birds such as plover and many others.  Quite a squawky place.  Best of all we were able to sight an echidna.  This was a real highlight as they aren't usually visible from paths.

 

Looking across the headland to San Remo.

Plover burrows dot the path for a long way.  Sadly, we saw a lot of chicks who
had not made a successful debut into nature.  Not sure what killed them.

Quite a sight to see the caves worn in the cliffs.  I imagine they
would be a lot of fun to explore by kayak or scuba depending on the tide.

One of the many crevices along the way.

It was amazing to watch  the surfers ride the waves.  Mary said it was
definitely not ideal surfing conditions so even more impressive for us.

Our special echidna.  It is a monotreme, an egg laying mammal.

Mary watching the surf competition.

This rock formation is called the Pinnacles.

This is from near the lighthouse looking back the length of the island.

Holes are cut by wind and weather in the softer sandstone.

Not what we were imagining for a lighthouse but later that night it was
very visible from the other end of the island.